an 




























PRESENTED BY 



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C. EfB^b 



SELECTIONS 



CALIFORNIA LETTERS 



PUBLISHED IN THE 



JOURNAL AND MESSENGER. 



1 873- J 880. 



CINCINNATI : 

G- W. Lasher, Publisher, 178 Elm St. 

1880, 



>> 



3> 






A 



Entered according to Act of Congress, by 

MONFORT & CO., 

tn the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 









INTRODUCTION 



From nearly four hundred letters published in the 

Journal and Messenger since April i, 1873, ihese are 

selected in the hope that some readers of the paper 

will welcome the winnowings of the correspondence 

in a more permanent form, and that others may be 

interested in the writer's plain expositions and homely 

illustrations of Christian truth. 

C. E. B. 
San Jose, Cal., May, 1880. 



(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB. 

The Shepherd Boy's Song, 7 

" His Tender Mercies," ....... 13 

The Comforter, . . . . . . 17 

"Arrayed in White Robes," 23 

About Burdens, 28 

"A Place for You," 34 

Asking the Way, 41 

The Three Doors, ....... 49 

Bulk and Value, . . . . . . -54 

The Prayer of Faith, 59 

Two Pastors, . . . . . , . . . , 65 

"Abolished Death," ....... 70 

Outside Christians, 74 

The Porter and the Elevator, 77 

Cunningly Devised Fables, ...»., 80 

"Growing Old," 83 

Music, 87 

The Ditch and the River, ...... 92 

The Young Orioles, 94 

Fencing in California, ...... 98 

"God Blessed Forever." 101 

Kindling and Quenching, ...... 107 

Freezing, . .112 

Flighting Fire, . . . . . . . . 114 

The Watchmen, • **7 

California in 1846, . . . . . . . 119 

The Golden Key, . . . . . . . .124 

Growth Means God, 129 

Elasticity, ......... 135 

Start a Blaze, . f 138 

The Two Failures, 142 

How It Grows, ....... 144 

That Colt Sally ,146 

(iv) 



CONTENTS. V 

PAGE. 

A Living Stone, ........ 150 

The Grand Co-operation, 153 

Testing the Scaffold, 154 

"As Seeing Him Who Is Invisible," .... 160 

Threshing, 163 

The Two Bridges, . 166 

What and How, 170 

Where Does It Come From ? 172 

The Grumbler, . . . . . . . . 175 

Waiting All Night, . . . . . . . .176 

"The Age of Reason," 178 

The Fresco and the Mirror, . . . . . .180 

Don't Switch Off, 182 

The Wind and the Fire, 185 

The Nail in the Foot, 187 

" Embryo Christians," 189 

Beauty in Common Things, ..... 190 

Shadows, 192 

"With Quietness," 194 

In Earthen Vessels, . . . . . . .196 

Finding a Spring, . . . . . . . 199 

The Plowed Field, 202 

The Flaw in the Bolt, 206 

Peter and Paul, ........ 209 

A Sloping Cut, 211 

The Ferry-Boat, .212 

Job and Paul, 214 

Ability and Opportunity, . . . . . .217 

Rooted in Love, ....... 220 

Double Pay, 221 

Mixed with Faith, 223 

The Style of the Bible, 225 

The Two Mansions, ....... 227 

Shod, 229 

Two Ways of Looking at Things, . . . . 231 

The Personality of the Spirit, ..... 233 

The Two Paracletes, ....... 234 

Spiritual Friends and Foes, ...... 240 

A Desire to Depart, ....... 243 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

A Desire to Depart, Again, 246 

The Divinity of Christ, 252 

Cities, 257 

Grain and Chaff, . . ..... 262 

A Village Pastor, . . . 267 

Why Do We Read It? 270 

Ideals of Life, ........ 274 

Endurance, Acquiescence, Thankfulness, . . . 279 

Patience, Comfort, Hope, ...... 282 

Spirit and Life, ........ 287 

Scarcely — Abundantly, 293 

Looking unto Jesus, ....... 296 

Precious Promises, 300 

Polishing the Plow, . . . , . • . . 307 

"We Know," 310 

The Eighty- fourth Psalm, 314 

" My Peace," 319 

The Umbrella Seller, 320 

Try Watering, 322 

The Light of the World, 324 

Where Is He? .... .... 329 

The Rainbow, ........ ^23 

Days of Darkness, 237 

Three Rules, ........ 340 

"Having a Good Time," ...... 344 

" Consider the Lilies," ...... 347 

Parasites, 353 

That Cloud, 357 

The Masses or the Family, 360 

A Land of Homes, . , . . . . . 362 

The Average Minister, . . . . . . 368 

Why Now ? 373 

Costly Care, . . ...... 377 

With AW the Heart, 3S0 

Adoption, 383 

A Finished Life, 385 

Too Much Sunshine, 389 

The Marriage Supper, ...... 392 

How Much Gold ? . . . . . . . . 397 



C. E. B. 



THE SHEPHERD BOY'S SONG. 

I committed the Twenty-third Psalm to mem- 
ory nearly fifty years ago. I have read or re- 
peated it thousands of times since ; and yet I find 
in it new beauty and sweetness every time. This, 
I doubt not, is the experience of multitudes on 
the earth; of far greater multitudes in heaven, 
and will be the experience of other multitudes 
as yet unborn, even to the end of time. Now, 
why is this song of the shepherd boy so pop- 
ular and so delightful? It tells, in the simplest 
possible words and figures, of God's love for us, 
and of our trust in him. The relation of the 
human soul to its Creator is the most interest- 
ing of all themes. And here that relation is so 

presented that the youngest child can under- 

(7) 



8 C. E. B. 

stand, and yet the profoundest scholar can not 
exhaust the meaning. 

The logic of the first sentence is irresistible. 
If the Lord is our Shepherd, how can we want 
anything that we ought to have? The shep- 
herd's pride and joy are in his flock. It is his 
sole business to take care of it. He never leaves 
it night or day. He does not shelter himself 
from storms, while his sheep and lambs are ex- 
posed to their fury; but he encounters, cheer- 
fully, discomfort and danger, that he may protect 
them. Often does a good shepherd, as our 
Savior tells us, lay down his life for his sheep. 
Now, if such is the shepherd's devotion, and our 
Shepherd is the Lord Omnipotent, Omnipresent 
and All-wise, how is it possible that we should 
lack any good thing? We may lack what we 
think would be good for us, but that is because 
we are silly sheep. The Shepherd will give us 
not what we long for, and ask for, but what we 
ought to have. Could all Christians accept fully 
the logic of this sentence there would be an end 
of all anxious care. The fact that the Lord is 
our Shepherd would give such assurance of 
safety, and of the supply *of every real want, 



THE SHEPHERD BOY S SONG. 9 

that our hearts would be filled with the peace 
that passeth human knowledge. 

THE PRONOUNS. 

We see here, as elsewhere in the Scriptures, 
the force and beauty of the pronouns. David 
did not sing, the Lord is a Shepherd; the Lord 
is the Shepherd of men ; the Lord is the Shep- 
herd of all who will hear his voice and follow 
him. He cried, with sweet, appropriating faith: 
''The Lord is my Shepherd;" "he leadeth me." 
The words "I," "me" and "my" occur no less 
than fifteen times in the six verses of the Psalm. 
It is well to study God's relations to the world 
as Creator and Preserver, to see how "he open- 
eth his hand, and satisfieth the desire of every 
living thing." But we can not find the comfort 
that we need in these general views of Jehovah's 
goodness and care. We long for the assurance 
of, and the experience of, a personal interest in 
ourselves. We are not satisfied with merely be- 
longing to a flock of which God is the Shepherd. 
We ask, Does he know and care for me as an 
individual ? Does he call his own sheep by name ? 
David intimates that he does. Christ, in the 



IO C. E. B. 

tenth chapter of John, assures us that he does. 
Hence, each of us can use this shepherd song 
as our own. God's nature and his love are so 
great that he is as truly mine, and as truly yours, 
as if there were but one soul in the universe for 
him to watch over. 

Two thoughts specially interested me as I read 
this familiar Psalm to-day. First, why does he 
use two words for the same thing in the fourth 
verse? Why does he speak of the shepherd's 
crook as 

A ROD AND A STAFF? 

This is not careless tautology or rhetorical 
amplification. It is designed to call attention to 
the twofold use of the crook, viz.: to guide and 
to govern; or, in other words, to protect and 
to chasten. If a sheep is attacked by a wild 
beast, the shepherd defends it with his staff. If 
a sheep falls into a pit, the shepherd helps it out 
with his staff. If a sheep is wayward, and wan- 
ders willfully, the shepherd uses his staff as a rod 
to drive or drag it back into the right way. It 
was a comfort to David to know that the Lord 
would govern as well as guide him ; would 
chasten as well as guard him ; would not only 



THE SHEPHERD BOY S SONG. I I 

lead him to green pastures, but would drive him 
from the paths of sin and folly. God is not only 
a good Shepherd, but he is wise. As many as 
he loves, he rebukes and chastens. We should 
then, with Paul, rejoice in afflictions ; we should, 
with David, find comfort in the rod of our heav- 
enly Father. He doth not willingly afflict ; but 
he never hesitates when we need to suffer in 
order that we may cease to sin. 

SHALL FOLLOW ME. 

Why does he say, ' ' Goodness and mercy shall 
follow me?" Why do they not go before, or 
beside us? Manifestly, that we may walk by 
faith, and not by sight. It is only when we 
look back upon our lives that we can fully ap- 
preciate the loving-kindness of God. And what 
blessed followers are these! What glorious an- 
gels of the Lord ! ' ' Goodness supplies all our 
needs, and mercy blots out all our sins.' ' Thus, 
as the Christian journeys on, with clouds before 
and over him, these wondrous angels still follow, 
making the record of God's dealings luminous 
with love. And so it is that his path "shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day." 



12 C. E. B. 

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. 

The young shepherd closes his song with the 
assurance that he "will dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever." Some regard this as meaning 
only that he will go to the tabernacle to worship 
and sacrifice as long as he lives. But the word 
house, when applied to God, has a fuller signifi- 
cance. It means household, family. The passage 
is parallel with that in the Ninety-first Psalm: 
" He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most 
High shall abide under the shadow of the Al- 
mighty." David's idea is, I am not only one 
of the flock that God guides and feeds, but I am 
a child of God. He has adopted me. His home 
is mine. I will dwell with him in sweet, filial 
confidence and communion here and hereafter. 
I will dwell with him in the house not made 
with hands. Thus, at the close, this Psalm car- 
ries us up to heaven. It starts with a lamb that 
a good shepherd loves, and that is happy in the 
assurance of his care. It rises step by step, until 
it leaves that lamb a glorified saint in paradise. 

And now, as the old preachers used to say, "a 
word of exhortation. ,, Shepherd and sheep are 
correlative terms. If we expect the Lord to lead 



' ' HIS TENDER MERCIES. I 3 

us, we must be humble, trustful and obedient. 
He will not take to the green pastures those who 
have the spirit of wolves or swine. And the 
paths in which he leads are those of righteous- 
ness. True happiness is found only in connec- 
tion with holiness. The disciples of Christ must 
be Christ-like. The child of God must be godly. 
The sheep hear ever a voice which says: "Be ye 
holy, for I am holy. " If we would claim the 
promises of God, we must try to do the will of 
God. If we would have his staff comfort us, we 
must kiss that staff when the Good Shepherd uses 
it as a rod. 



"HIS TENDER MERCrES." 

David was a shepherd boy and then a warrior. 
Where did he learn so much about God? He tells 
us in the Psalms more of the character and works 
of the Creator than all the poets and philosophers 
of ancient times. And his descriptions are so dif- 
ferent from theirs that we can not see how he 
could have made them unless God taught him. 

Take this verse: "The Lord is good to all, and 



14 C. E. B. 

his tender mercies are over all his works. " (Psalm 
cxlv. 9.) 

We have here, first, the statement that God is 
good to all — that he is absolutely and impartially 
benevolent. Did the wisest uninspired man ever 
get as far as this in studying the character of his 
Maker? But David goes far beyond this. Good- 
ness to all would require the punishment of sin. 
A good government must protect the innocent; 
hence it can not pardon the guilty. God, how- 
ever, is merciful as well as good — "his tender 
mercies are over all his works/' What a thought 
to flash into a world of sinners ! The Holy One 
must hate your sins, but he does not hate you. 
He wants to forgive you, to love you, and to 
make you happy. Forsake sin and he will have 
mercy. He is hovering over all his works, not 
only as a Ruler and a Judge, but also as a Savior. 

We elect our Governor to execute the laws. 
We confer on him the power to pardon, but we 
expect him to exercise it only on rare occasions. 
He must not forgive every criminal who repents 
and reforms, for the majesty of the law must be 
vindicated. To say of a Governor that he par- 
doned everybody who asked him to would not 



"his tender mercies." 15 

be complimentary. Such a Governor even 
the criminals would despise. And yet it is 
among David's highest ascriptions of praise to 
God that he is merciful — universally and impar- 
tially merciful. No writer depicts more grandly 
God's holiness and justice. None presents 
him so fully and frequently as a Judge and an 
Avenger; yet none sings so sweetly of his com- 
passion and his tender mercies. How did he 
learn of these? Not from nature or from his- 
tory. They give no intimation that there is a 
Great Spirit brooding over the world in loving 
kindness. But when that Spirit became incarnate 
this was his revelation of divinity to man. He 
stood upon Olivet, and, looking down upon 
Jerusalem, said: "How often would I have gath- 
ered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
her wings" — that was an illustration of "his 
tender mercies." The New Testament, in its 
teachings concerning God, is but an expansion 
of David's statements in the Psalms. We can 
see it all now — that the Holy One could also be 
merciful; for he tells us how Jesus died so that 
God might be just, yet justify the ungodly. But 
when David wrote there was no gospel revealed 



l6 C. E. B. 

— there had been no incarnation of divine love ; 
no sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Hence that 
conception of mercy must have come from the 
Holy Spirit, and it proves that the sweet singer 
sang no merely human songs. 

God is not only merciful, but his mercies are 
tender, cherishing, motherly. He not only par- 
dons the repenting sinner, but takes him into his 
arms, into his heart and into his home. He 
cries : ' ' Bring forth the best robe and put it on 
him, ,? even while the sinner is crying, "I am 
not worthy to be called thy son : only let me be 
thy servant/' 

Now look again at our human Governor. He 
extends mercy to a culprit. But how? He signs 
a printed or written form of pardon, and sends 
it by a messenger to the jailer, and the jailer lets 
the man go free. Perhaps he never saw the 
Governor, and the Governor cares no more for 
him. Suppose instead of sending a pardon the 
Governor should go himself to the condemned 
cell, unbar the door, file off the fetters, take the 
prisoner by the hand, lead him out, put him in 
his carriage and take him home, give him the 
best chamber in the house, a seat at the table 



THE COMFORTER. 1J 

and treat him as a brother. This would be more 
than mercy. It would be tender mercy like that 
of God. Did ever a Governor on earth so par- 
don criminals? all criminals who would consent 
to be pardoned, even the chief of criminals, if 
they would repent? If not, then where and how 
did David get the idea? It was a foreshadowing 
of the gospel. But what did he know of the 
gospel? of God as Christ would reveal him? 
Only what he was taught by the Spirit of God. 
There is no evading this conclusion. And this 
is but one illustration of the internal evidence of 
the inspiration of the Scriptures. They have the 
witness in themselves that they came from God. 



THE COMFORTER. 

How interesting to us is this name given to 
the Holy Spirit! It is not perhaps, the best 
possible translation of the Greek word, which, 
in other places, is rendered in our English Bible 
by Advocate. But the idea intended to be con- 
veyed is that the Spirit will be such a Helper, 
Teacher, Guide and Friend to each believer in 



l8 C. E. B. 

all times as Christ was to his disciples while with 
them on the earth. He is spoken of as "another 
Comforter." It was a great comfort to those 
disciples to have Jesus present in a bodily form ; 
to hear his voice, to see him work miracles. Sor- 
row filled their hearts when he was taken away. 
Although they knew that he was in heaven as 
their Intercessor, yet they wanted a divine Leader 
and Comforter on the earth. To meet this want 
the Spirit was given. The Spirit's presence is 
better than that of the incarnate Son, for he can 
be in all places at the same time. He can com- 
fort me here and my child a thousand miles 
away, and all my friends, however widely scat- 
tered, and all the friends of Christ, even to the 
ends of the earth. 

When we read, "He shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you forever," 
we think that Christians ought never to be sad 
and sorrowful. Why are they so? Is it not be- 
cause they fail to understand fully the work of 
the Holy Spirit? Let us see whom he comforts 
and how he comforts. 

The Holy Ghost is not given as a Comforter 
to everybody, but only to those who love Christ 



THE COMFORTER. 1 9 

and keep his commandments. (See John xiv. 
15, 16.) If our hearts are cold, if we are not 
striving to serve and honor our divine Redeemer, 
we can not enjoy the consolations of the Spirit. 
Like conscience, he is a witness for God and the 
truth, and can not cry "Peace, peace!" where 
there is no peace. 

This will appear more fully when we consider 
how the Spirit comforts. By reproving (or con- 
vincing) the world of sin, of righteousness and 
of judgment! Strange consolations, these! Our 
Advocate appears as our Accuser. He who was 
to plead our cause files indictments against us. 
We see clearly, then, from our Savior's state- 
ment, that the Holy Spirit will not comfort any 
soul in sin. He will not comfort any soul that 
trusts in its own righteousness. He will not 
comfort any soul that denies its moral account- 
ability, and declares that there is no judgment 
to come. He will probe the wound before he 
heals it. If we want the Spirit to comfort us, 
we must be willing to know ourselves as sinners, 
under condemnation, without any hope save in 
the righteousness of Christ. The Spirit will not 
administer anodynes. He will not, like foolish 



20 C E. B. 

human friends, tell us that we are better when 
he knows that we are sick unto death. 

Again, the Spirit will not comfort by reveal- 
ing new truth, but by bringing to remembrance 
what we know already. (John xiv. 26.) Some 
people think it would be a great satisfaction to 
know more about their departed friends, to know 
more about the spirit-world. But the divine 
Helper does not gratify any such morbid long- 
ing. He reminds us of what is revealed in the 
word of God. He recalls our attention to the 
teachings of Christ. Here is all that we need 
to know. If we fully believed what Christ said 
and did, and is now doing, we could not be un- 
happy. The fact of such a salvation from sin, of 
such a Savior and Advocate for sinners, ought 
to thrill our hearts with joy. If the sun should 
fail to shine, and all the stars should fall from 
their spheres, yet, while we see Christ as our 
atoning Lamb in the midst of the throne, we 
have nothing to fear. And that is the vision 
which the Spirit presents to the eye of faith, and 
which he aids the eye to see. 

If the Spirit convinced of sin only he would 
not be a Comforter. But, when he shows us 



THE COMFORTER. 21 

our guilt and danger, he shows also the way of 
escape, and he helps us to enter and walk in that 
way. The man who is sleeping in a burning 
house may have sweet dreams, and it seems cruel 
to startle him with the cry of fire. But when he 
is awake, sees his peril, and is saved from it, 
there is a rapture that no tongue can tell. Such 
is joy in the Holy Ghost. Without conviction 
of sin, how could we appreciate and be grateful 
for salvation from sin? 

And conviction of judgment, how does that 
comfort us? Christ says: "Because the prince 
of this world is judged." Satan tempts us. 
He seems to have great power. He goes about 
as a roaring lion. The Holy Spirit shows us 
that he is chained. Christ has judged him, con- 
demned him, and only permits him to come to 
us that our faith may be tested and made strong. 
Christ uses him for the discipline and culture of 
our spiritual life. He is but an instrument in 
the hands of his Master and ours. There is a 
world of comfort in this fact. We are not be- 
tween two contending forces — those of light/and 
darkness — with the issue undecided. No, the 
battle has been fought, and our Savior is the 



22 C. E. B. 

Conqueror. He not only controls all the forces 
of nature; he not only makes material things 
work together for our good; but he makes the 
wrath of men and devils promote our blessed- 
ness and his own glory. 

Such comfort as this — comfort that meets all 
the facts in the case, that not merely soothes us 
with assurances of sympathy and with vague 
hopes of relief; but tells us how God has made 
the fullest provision for our safety and happiness, 
and how he administers his remedial government 
as "God over all" — such comfort is comfort, in- 
deed. And this Divine One, who is to abide 
with us forever, is far better than a Savior in 
human flesh. Then, with one Advocate in the 
midst of the throne, and another in our own 
hearts, each divine, and keeping up by their 
unity in the Godhead a living union between us 
and the fountain of all power and love, how can 
we ever walk in darkness? how can we ever 
doubt as to our personal salvation, or as to the 
safety and triumph of the Church of Christ? 



" ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES." 23 

"ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES." 

Such is the brief description of the redeemed 
in glory. What does it mean? It means a great 
deal. It tells more than a volume could fully 
unfold in regard to this life and the life to come. 
White is the symbol of purity, of triumph and 
of joy. In ancient Rome candidates for office 
put on a white toga, thus saying: "I am inno- 
cent and worthy. I challenge criticism, and I 
claim the suffrages of my fellow-citizens." When 
a Consul returned victorious, and the Senate 
voted him a triumphal entry into the city, he 
appeared on his war chariot clothed in white. 
On festive occasions guests were arrayed in 
white, and the bride is so arrayed when she 
stands at the altar to-day. 

But these guests of the Son of God, gathered 
from the earth into his jeweled city, how do they 
obtain these white robes? They were neither 
holy nor happy here. They made daily confes- 
sions of sin, and they experienced sorrow even 
to the end. Their spirits passed away amid 
death-throes of anguish. In the next verse 
(Revelation vii. 14) the mystery is explained, 



24 C. E. B. 

and yet made more mysterious: "They came 
out of great tribulation, and washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 
Here is a wonderful paradox — soiled garments 
made clean by washing them in blood. No won- 
der the gospel seems foolishness to the wise of 
this world. It proposes to save a race of sinners 
by the death of one sinless Being. It presents 
the crucifixion of Him who was led as a lamb to 
the slaughter, as the hope of the penitent, as the 
fountain of life for millions who are perishing in 
sin. In the blood that trickles from his mangled 
form we are to find an element that cleanses, 
that makes the soul pure and spotless as the 
souls of the angels that shine around the throne 
of God! 

We have said this symbolical picture teaches 
many things in regard to this life and the life to 
come. Two only can we refer to now: First, 
though all our righteousness is through Christ — 
though our redemption robes are represented as 
the putting on of Christ — yet we do not receive 
them as new to be put on in place of the old 
ones, or over them. They are the old robes 
cleansed — cleansed by washing, cleansed by our- 



"arrayed in white robes. 25 

selves amid great tribulation — cleansed in- the 
blood of the Lamb. Here we see that we are 
not to get away from ourselves, not to be re- 
newed by* some miraculous power apart from 
our own volitions and efforts; but that we are 
to work out our salvation, while God works in 
us both to will and to do. He says to the sin- 
ner: "Be ye holy, for I am holy." "But how 
shall I get rid of these filthy garments?" cries 
the sad soul. "Go to that fountain filled with 
blood," is the reply. "But how can I make 
my robes white by washing them in blood?" 
"That is my business. Trust in me. Show 
your faith by your works." And the believer 
takes God at his word. He realizes that not- 
withstanding all that Christ has done he himself 
has something to do. He wants to be a co- 
worker with God. He wants to use all the gra- 
cious ability that God gives. He trusts as fully 
in Christ as if he could do nothing, and yet he 
strives to resist temptation, and to perfect holi- 
ness, as if he must do all. This trusting and 
striving is beautifully symbolized by the washing 
of garments in blood; hard work, rubbing and 
rinsing and wringing, where there seems to the 



26 C. E. B. 

eye of the rationalist and the skeptic no hope of 
cleansing. But he finds peace of conscience; 
finds growth in grace ; he finds increased delight 
in the law of God, as he washes in that fountain ; 
and he knows that it is able to make him pure 
in heart, so that he can see God. This fact that 
we are to wash our own robes, that is, purify our 
characters, might be perverted so as to encour- 
age us to seek and trust in legal righteousness, if 
we were told to wash in water, if there was any 
tendency in the washing itself apart from God's 
miraculous grace to make us holy. But the sym- 
bol can not be misunderstood or perverted. The 
work is faith ivork. We show our faith by our 
works. 

The other teaching of these white robes is that 
purity and joy in heaven are real, not apparent 
merely; are deep and permanent, not superficial 
and transient. The white toga of the candidate 
at Rome often covered a heart that was corrupt, 
selfish and unhappy. • The white dress of the 
bride is sometimes a mockery. But the redeemed 
who stand before God in glory have been re- 
newed in the spirit of their minds — their charac- 
ters have been transformed. Their clothing is 



"ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES. 27 

not the putting on of external robes, but of a 
new man. (Ephesians iv. 24.) They are not 
actors in a play dressed up as saints, but they 
are saints truly; as holy as the angels that never 
sinned. All moral defilement is left behind, for 
it could not be admitted to heaven. Not all the 
grace of God in Christ could secure the entrance 
of one evil thought or unholy desire through the 
gate of pearl. No, the white robe means a soul 
thoroughly changed into the image of God; a 
soul that, though sin-stricken and sorrow-stricken 
here, can there rejoice in freedom forever from 
both sorrow and sin. 

Oh, when we see how imperfect the best Chris- 
tians around us are, nay, when we feel how mor- 
ally vile we ourselves are, must we not rejoice in 
that vision of the white-robed who came out of 
great tribulation ; must we not long for the time 
when we shall stand with them, and join in their 
triumphal song? The glory of this picture is 
that it represents the redeemed as not only in 
heaven, but as worthy to be there; worthy not 
in their own right, but in their natures sanctified 
by grace; made pure and holy by the trials of 
life and the cleansing blood of Christ; saved by 



28 C. E. B. 

the merits and mediation of the Son of God from 
their sins and not in them. How this wondrous 
change is consummated at death ; how the earth- 
worm becomes an angel as soon as it is freed 
from the body, I will try to explain hereafter. 
But now my heart is full and warm with this 
grand idea that I shall walk the streets of the 
New Jerusalem arrayed in white — not a leper 
covered with a white robe — not an invalid or a 
convalescent, an object of compassion like the 
patient in a hospital. But I shall have an an- 
gel's spirit and an angel's purity, as well as an 
angel's drapery and an angel's home. Thank 
God for the assurance of a holy heart ; for with- 
out it there could be no certainty of happiness 
even in heaven. 



ABOUT BURDENS. 

Just now a good many people feel weary and 
heavy laden. These are days of burden-bearing, 
such as some of us have not experienced hitherto. 
This fact has turned my attention to what the 
Bible says about burdens. It says three things, 



ABOUT BURDENS. 2g 

which seem inconsistent with each other at the 
first glance: 

1. "Every man shall bear his own burden." 

2. "Bear ye one another's burdens. " 

3. "Cast thy burden on the Lord." 

How shall we understand these seemingly con- 
flicting statements? Thus, as it seems to me: 
God gives to each of us duties and cares, to de- 
velop our strength. They are the discipline we 
need ; without them we would be characterless, 
mere jelly-fish Christians. These burdens we 
ought to bear bravely and cheerfully. We ought 
to recognize in them the fact that this life is our 
spiritual gymnasium; that here, by toil and 
trial, we are to be prepared for rest and glory. 
The man who tries to shirk his burdens, or who 
carries them only because he must, and grum- 
bles all the time, will get little good out of them. 
He will be a mere drudge. While he who ac- 
cepts the fact that burdens are blessings, and 
makes the cheerful bearing of those that are al- 
lotted to him a part of his religion, will find the 
statement verified, that "these light afflictions 
* * * work out for us a far more exceeding 
and an eternal weight of glory." 



30 C. E. B. 

But he who bears his own burdens most bravely 
will always sympathize with his brethren. And 
this sympathy between burden-bearers is a mutual 
help. Then there is something gained often by 
an exchange of burdens. The pastor adminis- 
ters spiritual comfort to his parishioner, and the 
parishioner ministers to the pastor in temporal 
things. The wise man helps the strong man 
with his wisdom, and the strong man helps the 
wise man with his physical strength. And even 
in those cases where we aid the absolutely poor, 
and they seem unable to do anything in return, 
we find our hearts warmed by our benevolent 
efforts, and we are led to appreciate more highly 
God's special goodness to us. Nothing brings 
us nearer to Christ, and insures us more of the 
joy of his salvation, than going about doing 
good, as he did while on the earth. 

And there is yet another wonderful fact in re- 
gard to bearing other's burdens. By so doing 
we really lighten our own. Much of the weight 
of what we carry comes from a morbid state of 
heart. Our excessive selfishness tempts us to 
feel that we are unjustly dealt with; that God 
loads us too heavily. But when we go out of 



ABOUT BURDENS. 31 

ourselves, and learn what others are called to en- 
dure; when we find that they have burdens far 
greater than ours, the morbid part of ours dis- 
appears, and we seem to carry less when a 
goodly portion of others* loads is added to it, 
than when we struggled and staggered and fret- 
ted under it alone. This may sound like a par- 
adox; but whoever tries it will find it true. 

Then the requirement to bear our own burdens 
is not inconsistent with that to bear the burdens 
of others. We can not carry all the load that is 
allotted to any one else. There is a sense in 
which each must struggle and suffer alone, how- 
ever much others may seek to aid him, and may 
really lighten his load; for " every heart know- 
eth its own bitterness." There are weights that 
press upon our spirits, that we can not speak of 
to our most intimate friends. They are known 
only to God and to ourselves. These are the 
especial burdens that we are to bear, and accept 
with cheerfulness, as laid upon us by Him who 
loves us. 

But how about casting our burdens on the 
Lord? Are we thus to get rid of them as one 
gives his luggage to a porter? Let us see. Peter 



32 C. E. B. 

says: "Casting all your care upon him, for he 
careth for you." And Paul says: "Be careful 
for nothing, but in everything * * * let 
your requests be made known unto God." These 
exhortations are based upon the invitation of 
our Savior: "Come unto me, all ye that are 
weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon 
you, and learn of me; * * * for my yoke 
is easy, and my burden is light.' ' Christ our 
Savior is a burden-bearer, too. He wants us to 
come into sympathy with him, as well as with 
our neighbors, in this matter. He wants us to 
share his burdens, and to let him share ours. He 
will not relieve us from our load, for that would 
deprive us of the discipline that we need; but 
he will teach us how to bear it so that it shall not 
gall and chafe us, so that we shall not faint under 
it, as he did under the weight of his cross while 
going to Calvary. He who can realize that 
Christ is with him in all his toils and trials ; that 
whatever he is called to do and endure is for 
Christ's sake; because Christ in it all is seeking 
to make him stronger, purer, holier, happier; 
that Christ puts his own neck in one side of every 
yoke that he asks us to take upon ours ; that he 



ABOUT BURDENS. 33 

makes the heaviest burden light by his sympathy 
and help — that man can never h£ overburdened. 
He may have loads to carry that seem crushing; 
but so wondrous is the power of God's grace 
that he will mount up with wings as eagles ; he 
will run and not be weary; he will walk and not 
faint. 

Here, then, is the gospel law of burden-bear- 
ing: Each of us is a free, moral agent, to be 
trained by work and care and conflict for the 
skies. But we are linked, in this probationary 
state, with other moral agents, who are to influ- 
ence us and be influenced by us. We are to 
help ourselves while helping them, as stones in 
a current, rolling together, round and polish each 
other. And over us all is the great, wise, holy 
and loving God, who watches us as tenderly as 
a mother watches her babe ; who lets us try our 
strength, and stumble and fall even, in order 
that we may learn our own weakness, and be led 
to trust in him. • Then, through him, our very 
weakness becomes strength, our sorrow becomes 
joy, our trials become blessings. 

Oh, weary burden-bearer ! become not selfish, 
saying: "I have all that I can cany, and can 
3 



34 c. E. B. 

not help^ anybody else." Believe in and act 
upon the paradox, that he who watereth shall be 
watered ; that it is more blessed to give than to 
receive; that you can lighten your own load by 
helping others. And, above all, look to the divine 
Burden-bearer, the divine Helper, who will aid 
you so wisely and so lovingly, that when you 
cast your burden on him he will take it and 
transform it, by the inspiration of his grace, so it 
will bear you while you bear it. It will become 
like the wings of the eagle, like the steam in the 
engine of the boiler, a weight, indeed, to be car- 
ried, but a power, also, that carries itself and 
that which bears it. 



"A PLACE FOR YOU."— John xiv. 2. 

I had an engagement to preach in a strange 
city. I reached it on Saturday after dark. I 
hoped that somebody would meet me at the 
cars. But as I stepped on the platform I was 
greeted only with the din and clamor of the 
hotel runners. I knew the name of a good 
hotel. I went to it, was treated politely, had 



"A PLACE FOR YOU. 35 

an excellent supper and a pleasant room. But 
anybody else might have had that supper and 
room by paying for them. They were not spe- 
cially for me. I felt lonely and sad. I wanted 
somebody to say: "I am expecting you, and 
am glad to see you." I had a large and atten- 
tive congregation next day. I heard that the 
officers of the church, which was vacant, paid 
their supplies liberally, but did not think of en- 
tertaining them. It is so in a good many places 
on this coast; but I am glad to be able to say 
that it is not so in all. 

A few weeks later I stepped from the cars on 
a dark and stormy Saturday night in another 
strange city. On the platform was a man with 
a lantern, who came to me at once with words 
of welcome. He took me to a carriage in wait- 
ing. We were driven to his house. There we 
found not only an elegant supper ready, but a 
company who had been invited to meet me. 
After a season of social enjoyment and of devo- 
tion, I was shown to the prophet's chamber, 
where everything was arranged for my special 
comfort. I slept sweetly, and felt like preaching 
next day. 



36 C. E. B. 

I was reminded of these two visits while read- 
ing the fourteenth chapter of John — how the 
Savior's words meet the innermost longings of 
our souls: "I will go and prepare a place for 
you y and I will come again and receive you unto 
myself.' ' He does not simply assure his disciples 
that heaven is large enough for them all, and that 
they will be admitted there on application; but 
he tells them that each one will be expected, and 
that special preparation will be made for him. 
He also tells them that he himself will come and 
receive them. 

A great many questions we are tempted to ask 

ABOUT HEAVEN. 

Where is it? What kind of a place is it? 
Our Savior did not think it best to gratify our 
curiosity as to these things. He says: "In my 
Father's house are many mansions. I go to 
prepare a place for you." Some suppose that 
by his Father's house he means the material 
universe. They were walking at night toward 
Gethsemane. He pointed to the stars above 
them. "All these," he said, "are lights from 
the chambers in the great house of creation 



"A PLACE FOR YOU. 37 

which my Father built, and which he fills with 
his presence. In one of the chambers, 01* man- 
sions, of his house I will prepare a special home 
for myself and for you." Others suppose that 
by his Father's house he means that central 
place in the universe where God manifests him- 
self in some peculiar manner to his intelligent 
creatures ; where a throne is set up as the sym- 
bol of his power; where the angels gather to 
behold his glory, and to commune with him. 
"In this highest dwelling-place of holy and happy 
spirits there yet is room. The angels do not fill 
all of its mansions. There are many waiting 
for you. Perhaps they are the mansions of the 
spirits that kept not their first estate. They need, 
however, to be refitted and furnished as the homes 
of redeemed men. After purchasing them for 
you by the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary, 
I will go and get them ready for you." Which 
of these expositions is the true one, or whether 
either of them is, we know not, and we do not 
need to know. The great fact that satisfies the 
heart is that Christ, our beloved, has a place 
prepared for each one of us — a child's place in 
his Father's house and ours; a place where we 



38 C. E. B. 

will be with them, and be glorified with them; 
a place that we shall not have to go about hunt- 
ing and knocking to get admission to when we 
die, but which he himself will take us to. 

Miss Phelps' idea, in "Gates Ajar," that 
those fond of music will find 

PIANOS AND GUITARS 

In their heavenly mansions, and that good little 
children will find wonderful dolls and toys to 
play with, is rather materialistic. But we can 
not doubt that the homes of the saints will be 
adapted to their individual tastes and capacities 
for enjoyment. I believe that there will be de- 
lightful surprises in those homes; that the happy 
spirit will say: "How thoroughly my Savior un- 
derstands me, and what personal thoughtfulness 
and affection he has shown in preparing a place 
for me. He has cared for me as fully and as 
tenderly as if I was the only object of his love." 
Writing of Christ's mansions and his guests, 
I am reminded of the 

GREAT RECEPTION AT BELMONT 

Last week. Senator Sharon (who represents 
Nevada at Washington, but whose home is real*y 



1 'A PLACE FOR YOU. 39 

in San Francisco, at the Palace Hotel, which he 
owns) has a magnificent country seat at Belmont, 
twenty-five miles from the city. He invited a 
thousand guests to meet General Grant there 
last Wednesday evening. As the mansion is 
near the railroad, special trains of cars were run 
to accommodate the guests. The house and 
grounds at Belmont were brilliantly illuminated, 
and a splendid supper was served. All the 
wealth and fashion of the Pacific Coast were 
there. The society people regarded that recep- 
tion as the great event of the season, and those 
who received invitations spared no expense or 
pains in securing toilets worthy of the occasion. 
Probably never before was there such a display 
of court dresses, of silks, satins, laces and dia- 
monds on this side of the mountains. But what 
did it all amount to? There was a rush and a 
jam for a few hours; a formal introduction to 
the great General, who did not hear or remem- 
ber one name in a hundred. The rich and costly 
viands could not be enjoyed, the crowd and 
pressure were so great. The host did not know 
personally a quarter of his guests, and could only 
give each a formal welcome, The mansion they 



40 C. E. B. 

could admire and envy its owner, but none of 
them could stay in it even until morning. Soon 
after midnight the cars began to whistle, and the 
thousand guests had to hurry homeward sleepy 
and weary, some with crushed flounces, some 
with torn or draggled trains, and some lamenting 
the loss of jewels which had been dropped in 
the crowd and trampled under its feet. Next 
day there were headaches and vague memories 
of a brilliant but unsatisfactory scene. The rich 
Senator spent thousands of dollars, gratified the 
curiosity and vanity of a good many people, of- 
fended a good many more, who thought that 
they should have been invited ; but did not make 
anybody really happy. How different from this 
will be the reception in the heavenly mansion: 
Room enough for all, a special place for each, a 
wedding garment for every guest, a love wel- 
come from the Master of the feast, and a title to 
the place prepared for us, so that we shall go no 
more out forever. Thus the grandest of earthly 
mansions and invitations enhance by contrast the 
glory of the celestial. And here, too, there is 
no invidious discrimination, as in the case of 
the Belmont reception. All, all invited! "Who- 



ASKING THE WAY. 41 

soever will, let him come." From the highways 
and the hedges, from the attics and the cellars, 
the poor and the despised of earth will be car- 
ried by angels to Abraham's bosom. They will 
sit down as honored guests at the marriage sup- 
per of the Lamb. 



ASKING THE WAY. 

That is a striking picture which Jeremiah 
paints (chapter 1. 4, 5) of the return of the Jews 
from captivity. The children of Israel and of 
Judah "together, going and weeping: they shall 
go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall 
ask the way to Zion, with their faces thither- 
ward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to 
the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not 
be forgotten.' ' They are weary of bondage. 
They long for their own land, their Judean 
homes, and the temple in Jerusalem. They real- 
ize that they are guilty, and they weep. They 
are encouraged by the promises of God, and 
they resolve. They are brethren. They have 
the same sad experiences and the same rekindled 



42 C. E. B. 

hopes. Hence they are drawn together in sym- 
pathy. They say to each other, "Come." The 
weeping Jew will not seek the Lord alone, but 
invites the weeping Israelite to go with him. 
Their object is to escape from captivity and re- 
turn to Canaan. But as they can not do this 
without God's help, as he who gave them the 
land originally must restore it to them, they 
"seek the Lord their God." They pray earn- 
estly to him before they set out on their journey. 
But having wept and prayed, and invited their 
brethren to join them, they go forward. There 
are no railroads across the broad desert; there 
are no bridges across the broad rivers; there are 
no graded ways over the high mountains; there 
are no guide-books. None of them has traveled 
between Jerusalem and Babylon. It is seventy 
years since the last of their nation were carried 
away. The oldest of the captives was but an 
infant then, and can remember nothing of the 
route. But one thing they know, that Jerusalem 
lies westward. So they turn their faces toward 
the setting sun. They act promptly "upon such 
knowledge as they have. They look, and begin 
to move, in the direction in which they would go. 



ASKING THE WAY. 43 

With faces thitherward, they begin to ask the 
way to Zion. They are anxious to go there as 
speedily and safely as possible. Hence, to all 
they meet they say: "Tell us what you know 
about this route. Is there a ford or a ferry over 
yonder river? Is there a pass through yonder 
mountain? Where can we strike the caravan 
track across the desert? Where can we find 
grass and water?" Thus they went on, keeping 
the right direction, and getting all the informa- 
tion they could. Like theirs was the journey of 

THE FORTY-NINERS TO CALIFORNIA. 

They determined to go to the land of gold. 
They knew that it was in the farthest West. 
They turned their faces toward the setting sun and 
started. They had only vague and general ideas 
of the route, so they inquired as they went on. 
They eagerly questioned everybody they met. 
They watched for the trails of those who had 
preceded them. They looked anxiously for 
passes through the mountains, and for fording- 
places along the rivers. For months those gold- 
seekers inquired their way to California with their 
faces thitherward. 



44 C. E. B. 

Now, it seems to me that in these two pictures 
of earnest seeking there is a lesson for those who 
are awakened, who would like to be Christians, 
but who say that they don't know what to do. 
Imitate the captive Jews, nay, even the Califor- 
nia gold-hunters, and you can not fail. You 
know, in a general way, what it is you seek, and 
where it is to be found. You want Christ, with 
his pardoning love and his sanctifying grace. 
Christ is revealed in the Bible. Study it earn- 
estly. This will be setting your face thither- 
ward. Christ is preached in the church. Go 
there and listen reverently. Christ is worshiped 
in the prayer-meeting ; in it he has promised his 
special presence. Attend it regularly. Christ 
has taught us to pray; has said that men ought 
always to pray, and not to faint. His promise 
is: "Ask and ye shall receive/ ' Then pray in 
your closet. On your knees, with weeping, 
turn toward him who died for sinners. 

Perhaps you have done all this, and yet have 
not found peace. Then "ask the way." There 
is the minister, who has guided many seeking 
souls. Go and tell him your doubts and diffi- 
culties. There is a friend who has recently 



ASKING THE WAY. 45 

found the Savior. Open your heart to him ; his 
experience may help you. If there is a special 
inquiry meeting appointed, attend it. Don't be 
too proud or too sensitive to apply in any and 
every direction for aid. It is not a mere holiday 
excursion that you propose to make, but a jour- 
ney from the land of bondage into the soul's 
promised land; a journey from the wilderness of 
sin in which you are lost, and in which millions 
have perished, unto the city of God, where 
peace abides within jeweled walls, and love 
walks white-robed along golden streets. 

Years ago two young men, fellow-students, 
were awakened. They found that they were far 
from God, and in bondage. They determined to 
be Christians. They had been well instructed in re- 
gard to the plan of salvation, so they turned their 
faces Zionward. They began to attend meetings, 
both for preaching and for prayer. They began 
to study their Bibles and to pray in their closets. 
Days passed, weeks passed, and they found no 
peace. At length one said: "I must go and talk 
with somebody about this matter. I must get 
help from those who have experience." He vis- 
ited a minister, who unmasked some of Satan's 



46 C. E. B. 

batteries for him. He went to the inquiry meet- 
ing, announced himself as a sinner seeking Christ, 
and asked Christians to pray for him. In a few- 
days he was rejoicing in hope, and in a few years 
he was preaching the gospel. 

The other student said: "This is not a matter 
for me and the minister, or for me and the prayer- 
meeting; but a matter between me and God. I 
will settle it with him in my room. No one but 
God shall know anything of my seeking until I 
find." This pride, or morbid sensitiveness, or 
whatever it was, Satan used as a snare to hold 
him captive. He read and prayed earnestly for 
some months; then became discouraged, gave 
up seeking, turned his face away from Christ, 
permitted the tempter to fill his mind with bitter 
thoughts, concluded that Christianity was a delu- 
sion, entered the gloomy path of skepticism, 
went on from that to the downward way of vice, 
and died without hope. 

The primal condition of all success is 

EARNESTNESS. 

I saw a frantic mother once in a crowd, who 
had lost her child. She did not wait for intro- 



ASKING THE WAY. 47 

ductions, but ran hither and thither, crying to all 
she met: "Have you seen a stray child? Oh, 
help me, for I have lost my child ! " And I recall 
a touching story that was in one of the mission- 
ary journals, years ago. I wish that I could find 
it and reprint it. A heathen on some ocean 
island had heard of Christ, that he died for sin- 
ners, and that through him sinners might be 
saved. He saw a ship at anchor. He went to it 
in his canoe, and said to the sailors: "Do you 
know about Christ?" They told him that he was 
worshiped by many in the land from which they 
came, but they did not know much about him. 
He begged them to take him to that land. They 
consented. He worked his passage to London. 
He went ashore and began asking the people in 
the streets, in broken English: "Do you know 
Christ? Where is Christ who saves sinners?" 
The men in the hurrying crowds thought he was 
crazy, and paid no attention to him. At length 
he met an earnest Christian. The question 
thrilled his soul. He thought, perhaps God has 
sent that dark-browed seeker here. He took him 
home, told him the story of Jesus, and the 
heathen was converted. So do men seek, and 



48 C. E. B. 

so sure are they to find, when they are in earnest. 
But how many, lounging in the porches of God's 
house, does the story of this heathen rebuke? 
They want to be Christians; they hope to be 
some time or other. They look longingly Zion- 
ward, now and then, at a communion season or 
at a funeral. But they keep all their longing and 
hopes, and such feeble efforts as they make, to 
themselves. They will not confess that they are 
seekers of salvation. They will not ask the way 
to Zion. 

I have no doubt that people have been con- 
verted who never asked help from anybody but 
God. Yet these are exceptional cases. The 
ministry and the church are instituted to aid 
those who set their faces Zion ward, and he is wise 
who promptly seeks their aid. Oh, if all whose 
thoughts at this season are turned toward the 
gospel would inquire the way, how many would 
be glad to help them with their counsel and their 
prayers! And thus that feeble, flickering flame 
of desire might be fanned into a bright and glow- 
ing hope — a hope full of glory and eternal life. 
Be in earnest, and you will not be afraid or 
ashamed to ask. 



THE THREE DOORS. 49 

THE THREE DOORS. 

I like to take one of God's metaphors and 
study it, by comparing Scripture with Scripture. 
It is wonderful how he can use the most familiar 
things to illustrate the sublimest truths. We are 
opening and shutting doors almost every hour, 
and yet, whenever we do so, we ought to be re- 
minded of our own immortal natures, of Christ 
and of the Holy Spirit. Not to go back into the 
Old Dispensation of types and shadows, we find 
in the New Testament a threefold use of the door. 

First, Christ says, in Revelation iii. 20: "Be- 
hold, I stand at the door and knock." We all 
know what this means. God has created us in 
his own image. He has endowed us with a free, 
moral nature. Our characters are our castles. 
No one is to enter rudely or by force. The will 
is the doorkeeper. He lets in whom he wills. 
Those influences and agencies that we do not 
choose we bar out, and they knock in vain. To 
this castle, that the Creator has given us, he him- 
self comes. He comes not to storm it as rebel- 
lious, not to demand its submission, but as a 
visitor, as a friend; nay, even as a suppliant. 
4 



50 C. E. B. 

He comes, respecting the rights of the owner of 
the castle, and the prerogative of the porter. He 
knocks. Why does he knock? Why does he 
want to enter? With beautiful simplicity of lan- 
guage, but wonderful suggestiveness, he adds: "I 
will come in to him, and sup with him, and he 
with me." That appeal for admission is purely 
benevolent. The object is to bring into the cas- 
tle a feast from the banquet-hall of heaven — to 
begin on earth a friendship and communion that 
shall be the foretaste and earnest of immortal 
blessedness. And yet, even the heart of the 
Christian is often bolted and barred against the 
Son of God. That scene, so touchingly pre- 
sented in Canticles v. 2, 3, has been repeated 
again and again in the experience of believers. 
We fall into carnal slumber, and hear not the 
voice of our beloved. And all around the world 
how many hearts are beating at which Christ 
knocks in vain. Oh, the wondrous, patient love 
of him who stands at the door ! Whenever we 
knock for admission at the house of neighbor or 
friend, and hear the prompt invitation, "Come 
in!" let us think how we treat this divine Vis- 
itor, and how the world treats him ! That every 






THE THREE DOORS. 5 I 

door we look upon may stimulate us to deeper 
penitence, and to greater Christian fidelity. 

But He who knocks at our door represents 
himself as "the door" (John x. 9). "By me," 
he says, "if any man enter in, he shall be saved." 
If we receive Christ into our hearts, he will re- 
ceive us into his home — the home that he has 
prepared for those that love him. The use of the 
figure here is in harmony with its use in the pas- 
sage in Revelation. A prince goes to a cottage ; 
he seeks the heart and the hand of a peasant girl ; 
he says : " If you love me, if you receive me freely 
into the castle of your affections, then I will re- 
ceive you as my queen into the royal palace. As 
the humble door here opens to me, so opens the 
great door there. If your heart is shut against 
me, my home must be shut against you." Thus 
these two doors — that lowly one within us, which 
creaks as it moves on rusty hinges, and the gate 
of pearl, that swings on golden hinges — are 
united by the electric wire of grace. As one 
opens, so does the other. When this remains 
closed, that must also. If the Savior knocks in 
vain at our hearts, we knock in vain at heaven's 
portal. 



52 C. E. B. 

But Paul, as an inspired apostle of Christ, uses 
this word door to illustrate openings for Christian 
work— opportunities for usefulness. He writes, 
in i Corinthians xvi. 19, of a great and effectual 
door that was opened to him, and, in 2 Corinth- 
ians ii. 12, he says: "A door was opened unto 
me of the Lord." He does not mean the door 
of a house to live, or the door of a church to 
preach in, but the door of men's hearts. He 
means that God's Spirit so went before him, or 
wrought with him, that his hearers were ready to 
receive his words. This use of the word makes 
it symbolize the work of the Holy Ghost. He 
does not force his way into the castles at whose 
doors Christ stands knocking, nor does he give 
Christ's messengers, whom he accompanies, bat- 
tering-rams to beat down those doors; but he 
gives such force and sweetness to the proclama- 
tion of mercy that the porter is compelled to 
draw back bolt and bar and let the Savior in. 
The door which the Spirit opens is opened effect- 
ually. The work of the Christian, aided by the 
Spirit, is connected with heaven, and its pearly 
portal, as the work of Christ is. When we en- 
ter the doors of awakened sinners' hearts — taking 



THE THREE DOORS. 53 

in with us the love of God in Christ Jesus — we 
bind those hearts with the cords of grace to the 
home of glory. Yes, when in our congregations 
an effectual door is opened, we know that the 
door in the jaspar wall, the door that opens on 
the golden street, swings on its hinges. The 
angels come down to gather up the tears of peni- 
tence. They hasten back to hold them up before 
God as priceless jewels, and to sing over them 
anthems of joy. Nay, more ; when the effectual 
door opens here they put a golden plate, with the 
name of a redeemed sinner, upon the door of one 
of the "many mansions,' ' and they say, "this is 
his home." They adorn and beautify it for him 
until he is ready to leave the tent-life on earth, 
and become a citizen of heaven. Thus this fig- 
ure, so familiar, is associated with the whole of 
Christ's work in, and for, the souls of men. It 
is door-opening frpm the time that he came forth 
from the guarded tomb of Joseph, the counselor, 
until all his redeemed shall enter in through the 
gates into the city. 



54 c. E. B. 

BULK AND VALUE. 

Skeptics sneer at what they call our " Blood 
Theology." They say it is absurd to claim that 
the sufferings of one being, even if he was God's 
Son, could atone for the sins of the world. His 
blood could not be so "precious" as to redeem 
the souls of millions. But these shallow critics 
should not talk so flippantly about the relations of 
bulk or quantity to value in spiritual things until 
they can explain some facts in the material world. 
For instance : The Emperor of Russia has a dia- 
mond as large as a pigeon's egg, that is worth 
four millions of dollars. That diamond is noth- 
ing but crystallized charcoal, and yet how much 
charcoal it would buy! If a ton of charcoal is 
worth ten dollars, that diamond would buy 400,- 
OOO tons. Its weight is one ounce. There are 
32,000 ounces in a ton. There are 1,280,000,000 
in 400,000 tons. Hence the Erhperor's diamond 
would pay for 1,280,000,000 times its weight 
and bulk in uncrystallized carbon. This almost 
incredible enhancement in value results from that 
arrangement of the atoms of carbon which we 
call crystallization. And can not God, who 



BULK AND VALUE. 55 

makes diamonds out of charcoal, by uniting a 
human nature with the divine, give to Christ's 
blood a preciousness that shall make it adequate 
to the redemption of our race? Now, we would 
not measure our Savior's intrinsic worth, or that 
of his sufferings, in diamonds, or in anything ma- 
terial. But while there are such facts in the 
world around us, skeptics ought to be more mod- 
est in their criticisms. 

The Christian does not rest his faith in the 
power of Jesus' blood upon analogies. He has 
two demonstrations, each of which is perfect. 
First, God says that this blood is given for the 
life of the world, that we may all have redemp- 
tion in it, that it cleanseth from all sin. Now, 
God knows all about sin, all about the penalty of 
the law which the sinner has broken, all about 
heaven and the character needed for admission 
there. He tells us that the blood is sufficient, 
and he gives us in Revelation a vision of a great 
multitude around his throne who washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. Those divine declarations ought to sat- 
isfy us. They do satisfy those who accept the 
Bible as from God. , 



56 C. E. B. 

But this testimony in regard to the value of 
the blood is confirmed by the experience of the 
believer. He has washed in the fountain and 
proved for himself its cleansing power. He has 
sought, and by faith secured, the sprinkling of 
that blood, and knows that it purged his con- 
science from dead works to serve the living God. 
(Hebrews ix. 14.) 

Do we, in our preaching, make enough of 

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST? 

Would there not be more life and power in the 
Church if her ministers dwelt more upon the 
great doctrine of his vicarious death? It is only 
by faith in that doctrine that the Christian can 
have peace with God, and can believe that God 
is able to save the world. 

While celebrating the Lord's Supper yester- 
day, and thinking of this precious blood, I was 
reminded of an incident of my boyhood. When 
visiting a family in the valley of Wyoming, the 
lady of the house took from her jewel-box a 
piece of common granite with a few red spots 
upon it. Tears filled her eyes as she said: "I 
would not sell that piece of rock for many times 



BULK AND VALUE. 57 

its weight in gold." Why? During the Indian 
massacre in that valley her father was captured by 
the savages. After torturing him awhile, they 
placed his head upon a rock and cut it off with a 
tomahawk. After the Indians retired, the body 
was found near that rock, identified and buried. 
The rock itself was sprinkled with blood. The 
family believed that it was the blood of him 
whom they loved and mourned. They had the 
portion of the rock on which these spots were cut 
off. They divided it into as many pieces as there 
were children of that father, and each kept his 
piece as a sacred memorial. The granite, of lit- 
tle value in itself, became precious to the mem- 
bers of that family because it was sprinkled with 
that blood. So, thought I, all those Christians 
ought to be dear to me, for I trust that the marks 
of the precious blood — the blood of Him who 
gave his life for me — is upon them. We should 
love the brethren, though in many respects some 
of them are not particularly lovable, for Christ's 
sake. 

And this reminds me of the legend of 

THE JEWISH MAIDEN. 

It was the night of the first passover. She was 



58 C. E. B. 

the first-born in her Hebrew home. She lay sick 
of a fever. But she heard the order that came 
from God, through Moses, about sprinkling the 
blood on the door-posts. She knew that the 
death-angel would pass along at midnight, and 
that wherever he saw not the blood he would slay 
the first-born. As the evening advanced, and she 
heard the family feasting in an adjoining room, she 
became intensely anxious about that blood. She 
cried at length: "Father! father! is it nearly 
twelve o'clock? Are the door-posts sprinkled ?" 
"Yes, daughter," he replied; "I ordered it done 
an hour ago." "But, father," she cried again, 
"are you sure? Father, you know that my life 
depends upon it, and I would like to see it with 
my own eyes. Father, won't you carry me to 
the door that I may look upon the blood?" She 
persisted in this plea, until the father, to gratify 
her, took her in his arms to the door. They 
looked, and lo ! the blood was not there. He to 
whom the order had been given had neglected it. 
Easily may we imagine how they hastened to 
bring the precious drops and sprinkle the door. 
Scarcely had they done so when they heard the 



THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 59 

rustling of wings and knew that the death-angel 
had passed by. 

Need I moralize upon this legend? Does it not 
apply to the homes of many of my readers? If 
the children, there are not anxious themselves 
about the blood, like this Jewish maiden, their 
parents ought to be anxious for them. They 
ought to be sure that every heart in the home 
circle has been sprinkled ; for who can tell when 
the death-angel may come? 



THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 

I see in the papers another case reported of 
healing the sick by the prayer of faith. A 
young lady in Buffalo had been bed-ridden and 
helpless for months. A number of persons 
agreed to unite in prayer, at a certain hour, for 
her restoration. She was also to pray, and then, 
believing that her and their prayers would be 
answered, she was to try to get up. At the time 
appointed, she made the effort and succeeded. 
Though she had not been able even to turn her- 
self in bed, for a long time, she got up and walked 
about, and, in a few days, was entirely well. 



60 C. E. B. 

Such is the statement of intelligent Christian 
people, who, it is claimed, could not have been 
deceived, and would not deceive others. There 
was a similar case reported from some place in 
New England a few months ago. It is claimed 
that the statement in James v. 15, "the prayer 
of faith shall save the sick, " is for all time; 
that if such prayer is offered the Lord will raise 
him up, and that, when our prayers for the sick 
fail to be effectual, it is because we have not 
faith; we do not expect a specific and immedi- 
ate answer. 

Some commentators contend that this promise 
in regard to the prayer of faith — that it should 
save the sick — belongs only to the apostolic age 
— the age of miracles; that to certain persons 
was given the gift of healing, and that by send- 
ing for them, and, thus showing faith in their 
miraculous power, they were enabled to exercise 
it. But I can not accept of this explanation, for 
the direction is to send, not for persons miracu- 
lously endowed, but for the elders of the church ; 
and there is no pretense that all elders were work- 
ers of miracles. I can not doubt that the prom- 
ise is for us, and for our children, as well as for 



THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 6 1 

the primitive believers; and that, if we had more 
faith in the power of prayer, we should oftener 
receive specific answers to our prayers. Few 
Christians, nowadays, seem to believe that prayer 
is of any special value to the sick ; for, when dis- 
ease comes and prostrates them, or some mem- 
ber of their families, they send at once for the 
doctor, but don't send for the minister and the 
elders of the church. If the minister chance to 
hear of the sickness and come, he is invited, or, 
at least, permitted to pray; but no one, not even 
the minister himself, seems to expect that the , 
prayer will have any specific influence upon the 
disease or upon the body of the sufferer. The 
prayer may comfort him, may help him to bear 
affliction with patience, but, for being raised up, 
he depends upon the physician, and not upon 
prayer. 

It is no wonder, then, that the cases where the 
sick are saved, physically, by prayer, are few and 
far between; for faith in the healing power of 
prayer has almost become obsolete in the Church. 
The few who still believe in it are regarded as fa- 
natics, and, being so regarded, they are tempted 
to go to extremes, and to claim, as we stated 



62 C. E. B. 

above, that, in all cases where the prayer of faith 
is offered for the sick, the Lord will raise them 
up. 

Now, I would gladly see the faith of the 
Church in the power of prayer increased a hun- 
dred-fold; I would not discourage any one from 
believing implicitly in the power and the love of 
God. I am glad that there are some in this 
material and skeptical age who receive, literally, 
the assurance that whatsoever we ask of God, 
believing, we shall receive, though they may not 
always be judicious in the statement or the ap- 
plication of the statement. Yet I can not, of 
course, believe that prayer is the effectual and 
only needed remedy for all manner of sickness 
— that whoever prays in faith, and calls in the 
elders to pray with and for him, will surely, in 
every case, be healed. 

But what right have I to limit statements so 
full and explicit as that of James, or as those of 
the Savior himself, as recorded in Mark ix. 23 
and xi. 24, John xv. 16 and xvi. 23? I would 
not dare to do so, save on the authority of God 
himself. 

The Bible tells us that God sends afflictions; 



THE PRAYER OF FAITH. 63 

that they are not only to punish sin, but also to 
purify the hearts of his people, and to promote 
their growth in grace. To claim that, in all cases, 
he will heal the sick as soon as the prayer of faith 
is offered in their behalf would be putting this dis- 
pensation of his justice and his love out of his 
own control, and into that of those who pray. 
John, in his first Epistle (chapter v. 14, 15), says: 
"If we ask anything, according to his will, he 
heareth us," etc. And our Savior, in Gethsemane, 
said: "Not my will but thine be done." And 
Paul was heard, when he asked that the thorn in 
the flesh be removed. Yet, instead of removing 
it, God promised that his grace should be suffi- 
cient. Again, if sickness in all cases could have 
been removed by the prayer of faith, why did 
Paul leave Trophimus sick at Miletum? (See 2 
Timothy iv. 20.) Why did he not gather the eld- 
ers around him and pray, so that Trophimus 
should be restored at once to health, and accom- 
pany him on his journey? It is manifest that 
there must be, in every prayer, a submission of 
the human will to the will of God. We can 
never have a faith that will dictate to him ; that 
will insist upon special answers without any refer- 



64 C. E. B. 

ence to his wisdom, for faith is the gift of God, 
and he never can so inspire it that its exercise will 
dishonor him, or derogate from his sovereignty. 
Any faith which does this is wicked presumption, 
and any apparent answers to such faith are a de- 
lusion. 

But we must not press the fact of God's sover- 
eignty so far as to discourage prayer for specific 
blessings, or even earnestness and importunity in 
such prayers. If, when we ask him to heal the 
sick, we feel that such healing would be right — 
would be for his glory ; if the Holy Spirit seems 
to indite the petition ; if the kindling of desire, as 
we pray, becomes a glowing flame of devotion, 
then we may conclude that God is giving us faith; 
that the specific object we are praying for is in 
accordance with his will, and we may press our 
suit, believing that we shall have what we ask for. 

The saints, in all ages, have prayed for temporal 
blessings; have asked God to give or to remove 
some specific thing. They did not believe that 
the results of prayer are spiritual merely; that it 
has no definite relation to the things of this life. 
If my child is sick, and I ask God to spare its life, 
does God answer only by giving me grace to bear 



TWO PASTORS. 65 

the loss of the child, or does he, in many cases, 
restore the child, in answer to prayer? The feel- 
ing and conviction of the most pious men and 
women, for more than eighteen centuries, that 
God does bestow temporal blessings, in response 
to our asking, ought to be decisive ; and, though 
this feeling and conviction may, in some cases, go 
too far, and become fanatical, yet the greater dan- 
ger is in the other direction — the direction of skep- 
ticism — as to the value of prayer. Well does Dr. 
Dwight say: "In our zeal to correct the mistake 
of some ardent but injudicious Christians, let us 
take care not to commit or countenance a greater 
mistake. It is better to have something of the 
heats and irregularities of enthusiasm than the 
stupor of a cold and heartless philosophy." 



TWO PASTORS. 

They were installed over two prominent churches 

about the same time. No matter where the 

churches were. The men, I trust, are in heaven. 

They were both ab}e ministers; talented, edu- 

5 



66 C. E. B. 

cated, earnest, conscientious. But they started 
with radically different ideas of the pastoral office. 
Bro. A thought he was so wedded to the church 
that called him that it was almost a sin for him 
to take any interest in anything else. If asked 
to go and assist a neighboring minister in a 
protracted meeting he would say, "How can I 
leave my own church? It needs all my time 
and strength.' ' If invited to speak at a tem- 
perance meeting, he would reply, "My people 
differ in their views on the subject, and I might 
offend some of them. My great business is to 
cultivate peace and harmony in my church." If 
an appeal came from some Missionary Board, or 
from some feeble, struggling church in the vicin- 
ity, he would throw it into his waste-basket — 
for how could they respond to all those outside 
calls when the church needed a new organ, or 
to be frescoed, or something else? Bro. A lived 
in his church, like a tortoise in its shell. His 
ambition was to make it the model church of 
the region. What was the result? He secured 
an elegant house of worship, a fine, artistic choir, 
a fashionable, self-appreciative congregation. But 
he had no revivals. The contributions of his 



TWO PASTORS. 67 

congregation to benevolent objects were meager. 
His influence and that of his people was confined 
to a narrow home circle, and did not amount to 
much, spiritually, even there. As years rolled 
on, Bro. A began to realize that his ministry was 
a failure. He mourned over it. He could not 
understand why the field in which he toiled so 
hard should be barren. He never seemed, how- 
ever, to wake up to the fact that he had ignored 
the great law of true development, that he had 
petted and coddled his church when he should 
have taught it to work for others — to exercise 
self-denial. 

Bro. B's ideas ran to the other extreme. He 
thought it was well enough to be the pastor of 
a strong church; but this was only the fulcrum 
for his lever. He could not be satisfied with 
moving a parish. He wanted to move the world. 
Hence, he was hearing Macedonian cries all the 
while and from every quarter. Whenever any- 
body wrote, "Come, Bro. B" he thought that 
he must go. He attended protracted meetings, 
communion meetings, installations, dedications, 
anniversaries, etc., all over the land. He was a 
trustee in a dozen institutions. He was a com- 



68 C. E. B. 

mittee-man in a score of reformatory movements. 
Busy, bustling, full of zeal, taking upon him the 
care of all the churches, feeling that he was a 
sort of ecclesiastical Atlas with the world on his 
shoulders, of course he neglected his own church. 
When the people remonstrated, he replied, "I 
am not merely your pastor, I am a minister of 
Christ. He said to me, * Go into all the world 
and preach the gospel,' and I must do it as' far 
as I can. You must not be selfish and exacting. 
You ought to sympathize with me in the wide 
work that I am doing. You ought to esteem it 
an honor to sustain a pastor who is in such de- 
mand, who is one of the pillars and lights of the 
Church universal." 

Bro. B may have been useful in a general way, 
but he did not build up his church. It suffered 
for the want of pastoral care. Its members be- 
came discouraged; and the result was that the 
pastoral relation was dissolved, leaving the church 
much weaker than when it was instituted. Bro. 
B missionated for awhile, then went into an 
agency of some kind, and, after a very active 
but miscellaneous kind of life, went, as I hope, 
to heaven. 



TWO PASTORS. 69 

Now, between the two extremes of these good 
brethren lies the golden mean of true pastoral 
fidelity and efficiency. The pastor does not be- 
long to the church that calls him as a laborer's 
time and strength belong to the man who em- 
ploys and pays him. The minister of Christ is 
not a hireling. He is the servant of the Lord, 
and of the Church for the Lord's sake. Hence, 
while he will give to the people of his pastoral 
charge his warmest love and his best energies, 
he will not forget that the field is the world ; that 
the great Shepherd has other sheep in the wil- 
derness. He will look after the feeble churches 
around him, and try to get his people interested 
in them. He will quicken their liberality to the 
cause of missions, even if the church does not get 
freshly frescoed every year or two. 

I have in my mind's eye another pastor, one 
of the most successful in our Church. He has 
cultivated the same field for over thirty years. 
He is eminently useful and popular at home. 
And yet his influence is felt all over the land. 
By correspondence, by vacation excursions, by 
exchanges, and by writing for the newspapers, 
he reaches a wide circle, and does a great deal 



70 C. E. B. 

of good without neglecting the interests of his 
own church. Nay, he promotes its development 
by this judicious outside work; for he brings it 
into sympathy with the world-wide cause of 
Chrjst. 

Such pastors are a great blessing, both to the 
churches over which they are installed and to the 
Church universal. Let our younger ministers 
understand this matter. Let them get the idea 
that pastoral work has both a center and a cir- 
cumference. There may be too much concen- 
tration and too much diffusion. The wise un- 
dershepherd will so guide his particular flock as 
to keep it in sympathy with the great Shepherd 
and with all the sheep. 



"ABOLISHED DEATH." 

This is what Paul says that Christ has done 
(2 Timothy i. 10), yet Stephen was stoned. James 
was slain with the sword. Paul himself did not 
go to heaven like Elijah, in a chariot of fire, 
but was beheaded at Rome. In all the ages 
since believers have died, and the unseen Reaper 
is swinging his scythe to-day throughout our 



"ABOLISHED DEATH." 7 1 

churches and our homes. Is it true, then, that 
Christ abolished death? Two answers may be 
given to this question: 

First, Christ, by his own death and resurrec- 
tion, has made sure the resurrection of all the 
dead. He has proclaimed a time when they that 
are in the grave shall come forth, when Death 
will be compelled to surrender all his victims. 
Paul speaks of this great event as accomplished, 
because it is so sure. When the British Govern- 
ment decreed that all the slaves in its colonies 
should be emancipated on the 1st of August, 
1834, it was said, and truly, that England had 
abolished slavery, although the 1st of August 
had not yet come. The faith of the nation was 
pledged. The emancipation was as certain as if 
it had already been accomplished. So here. 

Second, the gospel has thrown such light upon 
death, and what is beyond it, that it is not since 
what it was before. Its power to terrify and to 
sting is gone. Paul says that death is abolished 
by bringing "life and immortality to light." (2 
Timothy, i. 10.) He cries (in 1 Corinthians xv. 
55), "O death, where is thy sting?" and he de- 
clares (in Hebrews ii. 15) that Christ delivers 



72 C. E. B. 

those who through fear of death were all their 
lifetime subject to bondage. Now we may 
properly speak of anything as abolished when 
its nature and influence are changed ; when it has 
lost that which has been its distinguishing char- 
acteristic. If I extract the poison fang of a ser- 
pent and render it harmless, I am as safe as if I 
had killed the serpent. I have abolished the fear 
and the danger. So in the case of this King of 
Terrors. 

Satan had the power of death. (Hebrews ii. 
15.) He used it to terrify and enslave men. 
When Christ became a man, Satan thought that 
he would slay him, and triumph in his death. 
But he found in his victim a conqueror. He was 
like the fish that seizes the bait, and gets a barbed 
hook in its mouth. Satan was vanquished in 
the death of Christ, and now he has no "power 
of death" over those who believe in Christ. He 
can not terrify them with shadowy fears. He 
can not pierce them with the sting of sin, for 
they know that Christ has died for their sins. 

Then, in regard to the Christian, Death is now 
abolished. Instead of the King of Terrors, he 
is the messenger of God to summon his guests 



" ABOLISHED DEATH. 73 

to the banquet of immortality. Look at the 
death of the first Christian martyr. Was it not 
unlike any previous death? He saw heaven 
opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of 
God to welcome him. He cried, "Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit," and then, says Luke, "he fell 
asleep." Was that dying? Was there any fear 
there? Was there any sting of sin there? Was 
there any power of Satan there? No. It was 
as triumphant a passage from earth to heaven 
as that of Elijah. And like this is the death of 
every believer. 

The Athenians wondered that Socrates was 
not afraid to die. The jailer said that all his 
other prisoners raged and swore at him when 
he told them that they must drink the poison. 
The calmness of this greatest of heathen philos- 
ophers was a mystery even to his pupils. But 
though he was willing to go out into the spirit 
world, believing in the immortality of the soul, 
he had no joyous or triumphant feeling, for he 
had no knowledge of a divine Savior, or of a 
home in heaven. If he had had our knowledge 
of and hope in Christ, how different his view of 
death would have been. His cheerful submis- 



74 c - E - B - 

sion to the inevitable was the best that philoso- 
phy could do. But the gospel can do far more ; 
it enables multitudes to rejoice in the hour of 
death. 

We ought to cultivate a cheerful view of the 
spirit's translation from its house of clay to its 
mansion of glory. There is too much of the old 
bondage in the hearts of professed followers of 
Christ. Let us realize fully that he has abolished 
death, that what we call by that name is the 
coming of the Savior to take us to himself, and 
can we not all say with the apostle John, "Even 
so, come, Lord Jesus ?" 



OUTSIDE CHRISTIANS. 

A distinguished minister and lecturer has been 
telling the people on this Coast that some of the 
best Christians are outside of the Church — that 
though a man may deny the divinity of Christ, 
and the inspiration of the Bible, yet if he is hon- 
est, generous, etc., he is a true Christian. "The 
true Christian is he who has the fruit of the Spirit 
(see Galatians v. 22-24), whether he is a Hebrew 



OUTSIDE CHRISTIANS. 75 

or a Brahmin, or a heathen or an infidel." The 
sermon in which these strange statements were 
made was delivered in the Grand Opera House. 
The statements themselves were applauded by the 
audience, and next day, I am told, at the Stock 
Boards, and even in the saloons, men were saying 
to each other: "Well, thank God, we are not 
hypocrites, as the preacher says many of the 
church-members are. We are clever, whole- 
souled fellows ; pretty good Christians after all, if 
we don't go to church; guess we will come out all 
right. Let's go and take a drink." 

This fling at the Church by one of its ordained 
ministers is as illogical as it is ungenerous. _ As it 
expresses a somewhat extensive and popular er- 
ror of the day, it is worthy of some attention. 
The idea is that Christianity may exist without the 
Church, and even without the Bible. Now, what 
is Christianity? Let us divide the word into its 
component parts. Christianity is Christ-ianity. 
It is the religion of Christ. It owes its existence 
on earth solely to Christ. It is the embodiment 
of his teachings and his Spirit. But what did 
Christ think about the Church? He organized it. 
As he entered a human body in order to labor 



j6 C. E. B. 

among men and to suffer for them, so he put the 
truth and love that he revealed into an organiza- 
tion in which the Holy Spirit was to be incar- 
nated. The Church is Christ's body now, as truly 
as the human form of the Son of Mary was dur- 
ing his earthly life. The Christian Church to-day 
is the Church that Christ established. It is the 
Church which he loved, and for which he died. 
It is the body of which he is the Head. To talk 
about Christianity as apart from and independent 
of the Church, is like talking about a man with- 
out a body, a State without any constitution or 
form of government, about steam operating sim- 
ply as steam without any cylinders, or valves, or 
wheels, or levers. Only diffuse the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, say these modern illuminati, and all will 
be lovely. That subtle spirit will overspread and 
renovate the world. Only generate steam and 
let it go out into the air. Let it fill the atmos- 
phere with its hot, white vapor, and all the cars 
will run, and all the steamboats, and all the fac- 
tories, and every farmer will have a steam thresher 
of his own ready whenever he needs it. How 
nonsensical ! 

And, forsooth, the Hebrew who calls Christ a 



THE PORTER AND THE ELEVATOR. TJ 

blasphemer, the infidel who calls him an impostor, 
may be true Christians notwithstanding — real 
Christ-men, though they despise and reject Christ! 
How transparent the absurdity of such assertions, 
and yet the Christian minister makes them, and 
the Christ-hating, Christ-scorning multitude ap- 
plaud them! 

Let the Savior's own test be applied to these 
outside Christians: "By their fruits ye shall know 
them." What has been done by them for the 
renovation of the world ? What benevolent insti- 
tutions do they sustain? What missionaries do 
they send to the heathen ? Ever since Christ was 
on earth, all the streams that have purified and 
blessed it have come from the Church. He who 
proposes to dispense with the organized Christian 
Church, simply proposes to do nothing for the 
moral renovation of the race. 



THE PORTER AND THE ELEVATOR. 

Sitting in one of our hotels the other day I 
saw a porter bring a heavy trunk to the elevator. 
He sat down on a cushioned seat, and he and his 



78 C. E. B. 

burden were taken up to the fourth story. I 
thought how porters used to carry such trunks up 
the long stairways, and imagined that they must 
invoke many blessings upon the man who invented 
the elevator. And then I thought again: Let 
that elevator represent the freely offered grace of 
God. Suppose I read printed upon it, "Cast 
thy burden on the Lord." Suppose instead of 
the porter with a trunk, there stands before it a 
Christian with his load of anxieties and cares. 
He is weary and heavy-laden. He sighs and 
groans. He looks at the inscription, shakes his 
head, and begins to climb the stairway. ' ' What 
is the matter, my brother; don't you see the ele- 
vator ?" 

"Yes, I see it; but I can't believe that it is 
meant for me. I am not sure that if I went into 
it with my load, it would take me up to the fourth 
story. The elevator has all it can do carrying 
better people than I am — people whose burdens 
are not so heavy as mine. I am a poor unworthy 
sinner, and I ought to be grateful that there is a 
stairway for me to climb up by." 

Would any porter or guest in a building where 
there was an elevator be as foolish as some Chris- 



THE PORTER AND THE ELEVATOR. 7g 

tiansare? How ungrateful, as well as senseless, 
to go about burden-bowed and sad when God 
comes to us with such invitations and promises. 
How precious is the inspired exhortation in I 
Peter v. 7: " Casting all your care upon him; for 
he careth for you." He is a care-carrier for you. 
Can we find an illustration of the folly of the 
care-worn Christian with such a verse in his Bible? 
No; we shall have to invent one. Yonder is a 
train of cars ; a traveler comes to it with his ticket, 
dragging a heavy trunk. He sees a car on which 
" Baggage' ' is painted in large letters. In the 
door of that car stands a baggage-man, who cries : 
" Bring your trunk here and I will give you a 
check for it." But he shakes his head, and drags 
it to the platform of the passenger-car. The 
brakeman says: " Don't bring that trunk here; 
take it to the baggage-car." Again he shakes his 
head. The train is about to start. He gets on 
the platform, draws his trunk up so that it rests 
partly on the step of the car, but must be held all 
the time or it will slip off and be lost. And 
there, as the train rushes on, stands that passen- 
ger holding himself by the railing of the platform 
with one hand and his trunk with the other, sigh- 



80 C. E. B. 

ing, groaning all the way. His trunk ought to be 
in the baggage-car, and he ought to be in the pas- 
senger-car. There is no necessity for his being 
on the platform with his baggage. Nay, he has 
no business there. He is violating the rules of 
the road. He is annoying and defying the offi- 
cers in charge of the train. That passenger I 
never saw, and never expect to. But I have seen 
Christians just like him — Christians who .insist 
upon being miserable when God has made the 
most ample provision for their comfort and hap- 
piness. 



CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES. 

Peter writes in his second Epistle (Chapter I, 
v. 1 6) : " For we have not followed cunningly de- 
vised fables, when we made known unto you the 
coming and power of our Lord Jesus Christ." He 
does not say silly fables, but ' ' cunningly devised 
fables." It would be easy to show that even if 
the Gospel story is a fabrication, it is the most in- 
genious one ever devised by the wit of man. Just 
think how, for eighteen centuries, it has taken 
hold of the minds and hearts of millions. It has 



CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES. 8 1 

charmed the scholar amid his most refined specu- 
lations. It has lured the savage from his orgies 
of blood. No story since time began has been 
so popular and so potent. Compared with it, 
how senseless all the mythologies of Greece and 
Rome, of China, Persia and Hindostan! How 
they grow old and pass away, while it, though 
venerable, is ever fresh and vigorous ; suits every 
age, every clime, every state of society, every 
human condition and want. A fiction whose in- 
fluence is thus wide as the world and enduring as 
time, which anticipates the progress of man, and 
is ready to respond to each new development of 
the science and civilization of the ages, must have 
been devised by the most transcendent genius of 
the race. But who was that genius? What is 
his history? A young man reared in a carpenter- 
shop in an obscure village, who was executed as 
a criminal when but thirty-three years old. Ah ! 
that man, as a man, had not, nor any of his illit- 
erate followers, cunning enough to devise this 
story; hence we must conclude, with Peter, that 
the writers of it were " moved by the Holy 
Ghost" — that the hero of it is "the Lord Jesus 

Christ" 
6 



82 C. E* B. 

Some shallow skeptics say that the Gospel story- 
is not only false but foolish; that it is full of in- 
consistencies and absurdities; that they could 
themselves get up a better system of religion and 
not half try. Well, let them do it. Let them 
devise a fable that shall supplant Christianity. 
Let them give us a hero superior to Jesus of Naz- 
areth — a model man — wiser, purer, more original 
than he was. Let them so arrange the plot of 
the story that the world will be interested in it ; 
that it will stir the hearts of millions ; that it will 
transform their characters and lives. Let them 
start with all the advantages our Christian civiliza- 
tion gives, and make a book that shall lead us on 
to a higher and better civilization. 

It is much easier to criticize than to excel, to 
find fault than to get up that which shall be fault- 
less, to destroy than to create. Any idiot can 
take a watch and crush it, but it requires skill and 
time to make a watch. The modern opponents 
of Christianity call themselves "Positivists," but 
they are really negativists. They propose to take 
from us a story that has had wonderful vitality and 
power for more than sixty generations, and to 
give us nothing in its place. We do not mean to 



"GROWING OLD." 83 

be cheated and robbed in that way. We do not 
mean to abandon our ship in mid-ocean unless 
they will bring us a raft, at least, in its place. 

That advertisement of Dr. McCosh's for a new 
religion was a splendid piece of irony. Let the 
skeptics of the day come together — materialists, 
spiritists, rationalists, transcendentalists. Let them 
agree upon something. Let them get up a cun- 
ningly devised fable, an ingenious substitute for 
Christianity. Let them start it on a rival mission. 
Let them try to supplant our story with a wiser 
and more powerful one. This will test the mat- 
ter fairly. Until they do this they are but dogs 
barking at the wheels of a chariot as it rolls on 
its triumphal way. They only call the attention 
of the world to the progress that they are power- 
less to arrest. 



"GROWING OLD." 



Is this expression correct? Should we speak 
of old age as a growth? Physically, it is the re- 
verse of this. The body which has developed 
from infancy to youth, and from youth to the ma- 



84 C. E. B. 

turity of manhood or womanhood, begins to de- 
cay. The senses become dull; the step is totter- 
ing; the blood is chilled; the pulse is languid; 
and often the mind sympathizes with the body. 
It loses its elasticity ; it shrinks from the scenes 
of excitement in which it once delighted ; it cov- 
ets quiet and repose. There are multitudes to 
whom age is in no sense a growth, but a slow, sad 
crumbling of their earthly house. But there are 
some who can say with Paul: "Though our out- 
ward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed 
day by day." These are they who bring forth 
fruit in old age. To them loss of sight and hear- 
ing, and all bodily infirmities, are like the pruning 
of a tree. They stimulate the true growth — the 
growth of the soul. 

Put a child in a tent that is exposed to the 
storm; the canvass and cordage will rot, the 
stakes will decay or be loosened, the tent will 
tremble with the .wind. It will admit the rain. 
People will say it is rotten and must soon fall. 
But does the child cease to grow because the tent 
decays ? Nay ; if healthy, it will grow more vig- 
orously, as the rents in the canvass admit the free 
air. Like that child in the tent is the Christian 



<f GROWING OLD." 85 

in the body. Paul calls it the earthly house of 
our tabernacle — that is, of our tent life. It is to 
be dissolved, and we are to move from it into a 
house eternal in the heavens. Then, as the proc- 
ess of dissolution goes on, it shows not that the 
spirit is failing, but that it has become too large 
and strong for its tabernacle; that the fluttering 
of its wings, as they unfold for flight, is shaking 
the frail prison in which it has been confined. 

In the trees in our orchard there are two kinds 
of sap — that which produces wood and leaves, 
and that which produces fruit. If the former is 
stimulated, the tree becomes large and looks 
thrifty, but is barren. If the wood growth is 
checked by pruning, the fruit growth is stimu- 
lated, and the tree that seems less thrifty, nay, 
that is mutilated or marred, becomes loaded with 
fruit. We are like trees in this respect. If we 
have health and bodily vigor, we enjoy the world, 
we are tempted to seek happiness in sensual grat- 
ifications. We almost forget that we have souls. 
But when sickness comes, or old age dulls the 
senses, the hidden life begins to bud and blossom ; 
fruit is produced unto righteousness and eternal 
life. 



86 C. E. B. 

Let us, then, not speak of growing old as if it 
were sad and mournful. Even Cicero, with only- 
philosophy to comfort him, was wiser than that. 
Old age may be the period of our noblest growth. 
It may be the time in which we shall begin to en- 
joy the best fruitage of our toils and studies, and, 
above all, of our faith in God. 

It is an especial privilege to grow old. More 
than three-quarters of our race die in early or 
middle life. Less than one in five reaches the six- 
tieth year. And we do not grow old alone. Those 
who were boys with us, if they survive, are gray- 
haired like ourselves. Many that we knew at 
school, at college, or later in life, are daily going 
onward, from old age into the spirit world ; and 
there is a great company waiting to welcome us 
on that mysterious shore. If our growth in years 
is represented by a corresponding growth of grace, 
and if our latest years are our best ones, as the 
older a healthy tree is, the larger the new ring of 
wood formed around its trunk, then we may re- 
joice in gray hairs, as showing our ripening for 
heaven, and in the failure of our bodily powers, 
as the proof that the Great Husbandman is loos- 
ening us from earth, and preparing to transplant 



MUSIC. 87 

us into the paradise above. If growing old is 
growing heavenward, it is the best of all growths. 
A true life is not like a day on the earth, with its 
morning, noon and evening, ever ending in night. 
It is not like a path that turns on a down grade 
and ends in darkness. It is the path of the just 
(the justified), that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day. 



MUSIC. 

What is there in music that attracts and de- 
lights all classes of people, the old and the young, 
the educated and the ignorant? Has any philos- 
opher been able to analyze its influence? It is 
one of the facts, like the love of beauty, which 
we must accept without trying to understand 
them. But it is evident that this susceptibility is 
one of the strongest and most abiding in our na- 
ture ; and also that it is one that we possess in 
common with the angels. Job tells us of the first 
oratorio of the creation, when "the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy." 



88 C. E. B. 

We read in Genesis that the harp and organ 
were invented before the flood, and perhaps Jubal 
got up musical concerts to entertain the antedilu- 
vians. 

God made music an important part of his wor- 
ship under the Old Dispensation. He showed 
thereby that he himself shares in that love for it 
which he has planted in our natures. He shows 
also that it may be made to promote our moral 
culture. The greatest of lawgivers, Moses; the 
greatest of Judah's kings, David and Solomon; 
the greatest of the prophets, Isaiah — were poets. 
They wrote that the people might sing. In the 
Christian Church, from its institution in that up- 
per room where they sang a hymn, to the present 
time, music has been cultivated as a most appro- 
priate, if not indispensable, means of expressing 
the heart's adoration and love. 

We are not surprised, then, to find in the 
Apocalypse that there is a great deal of music in 
heaven. We read in the fifth chapter of a new 
song which the four beasts, and four and twenty 
elders, sang to the Lamb, saying: "Thou art 
worthy, for thou wast slain." This song is caught 
up by the angels, ten thousand times ten thou- 



MUSIC. 89 

sand, and thousands of thousands. (Verses 1 1 
and 12.) And then, in the next verse, every 
creature in heaven and on earth is represented as 
joining in the grand doxology: " Blessing, and 
honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for- 
ever and ever." Here was the first Musical Fes- 
tival of Redemption — the first grand concert of 
the .New Dispensation in heaven. 

But there is a second concert described in this 
wonderful book. In the fourteenth chapter we 
are told that the Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and 
with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, 
who sang as it were a new song before the throne. 
This song no man could learn but those who were 
redeemed from the earth. The words of this 
song are not given. The angels do not join in it, 
though no doubt they listen to it with deep inter- 
est. It is new; its melodies are peculiar. It is, 
we may believe, a composition of Christ himself, 
who evidently leads the choir, setting forth in fit- 
ting words and music the joys and glories of re- 
deeming love. Solomon's Canticles are called the 
Song of Songs. But this will be the real song of 
songs — the most perfect anthem since time began 



go C. E. B. 

— the crowning anthem of immortal blessedness 
and joy. Who, then, are the singers that God 
and angels shall thus listen to ? The angel tells 
the writer (chapter vii. 14), the hundred and forty- 
four thousand "are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 

Here is a fact that excites our wonder: The 
choir of the Son of God, the choir which makes 
the newest and best music of heaven, is not com- 
posed of the great singers of the earth, or of 
those which have been learned and eloquent 
among men, but of those who have suffered here 
— of those who have been despised and perse- 
cuted. Their spirits are tuned by sorrow to ex- 
press the highest and holiest emotions of the re- 
deemed. Christ, the great Leader, comes to 
them in their earthly trials, and awakens faith. 
Then there are "sqngs in the night," strange feel- 
ings of rapture amid scenes of deepest gloom, 
music like that of Paul and Silas in the dungeon 
at Philippi. These are the rehearsals. These 
are bringing the soul of the Christian harper up 
to concert pitch, so that he can join in the great 
song on Mount Zion. That is to be a song of 



MUSIC. 9I 

the heart — a song of Christian experience — a 
song which only those who have suffered and 
been redeemed on the earth can learn. Who will 
not want to hear that new song? Nay; who will 
not want to join in singing it? Who would not 
rather have a place in that choir, than be the 
most popular vocalist on earth? Parepa and 
Patti, no doubt, often sing with heavy hearts. 
But there the melody will come from the heart 
itself. It will be the outgush of its richest ex- 
periences and of its highest raptures. And it 
will not be the song of a day, but the life-song of 
each singer. Its melody will flow out fuller and 
sweeter as the ages roll on. It will be the expres- 
sion in words and music of immortal blessedness. 
Then, courage, my careworn brother, my sis- 
ter, heart-sore and sad. There may be a place 
and harp for you on Mount Zion. If you truly 
love the Son of God, and yet are a sufferer, you 
have the evidence in your own experience that he 
is training you to join in the music of heaven. 
Yet a few days and these weary rehearsals will be 
over, and you will stand in white robes, and sing 
such music as heaven itself shall love to hear ! 



92 C. E. B. 

THE DITCH AND THE RIVER. 

Our ditch for irrigating is half a mile long! 
Before it reaches the point where we begin to use 
it the volume of water is diminished fully one- 
half. It grows gradually less and less all the 
way. The soil absorbs it ; the sun evaporates it. 
But the river, which starts in a mountain spring, 
and is a mere rivulet at first, grows broader and 
deeper all the way. It pours into the ocean ten- 
fold, a hundred-fold more water than it started 
with. Why this difference? The river is fed by 
fresh springs and by tributary streams. The new 
supplies they bring it more than make up for its 
losses. Hence, though it is watering the earth 
continually, though it quenches the thirst of flocks 
and herds, yet it gains while it gives. Man made 
the ditch, and it is a specimen of the best that he 
can do. God made the river, and it illustrates 
the riches of his grace. What we call natural 
sources of enjoyment — those of the senses, of 
the intellect, and of the human affections — are 
limited. They fill our capacities and desires for a 
time; but, as the years roll on, they become less 
and less satisfying. The current of our peace 






THE DITCH AND THE RIVER. 93 

becomes feebler and feebler. A worldly man, 
who has nothing to enjoy but the good things of 
this, life, experiences the truth of that sadly elo- 
quent description in Ecclesiastes (chapter xii.). 
Eyes dim, ears dull, the grasshopper a burden, 
desires failing; the memory weak, the body fee- 
ble, the world more and more lonely and dark and 
cold. But they that wait on the Lord " renew 
their strength." "He giveth more grace." "As 
the outward man perisheth, the inward man is re- 
newed day by day.** Well, then, does the 
prophet compare the peace that God imparts to a 
river. (Isaiah xlviii. 18.) It is not only unfail- 
ing, but it is ever increasing. It is fed by fresh 
supplies of the water of life all the way. The 
older the true believer, the happier he is ; for he 
has a richer experience of God's love, a growing 
likeness to God himself, and a clearer title to his 
heavenly home. He sits in the land of Beulah, 
fanned by breezes from the celestial shore, and 
seeing in the visions of faith its gates of pearl 
swinging open to let him in. I know of nothing 
on earth more beautiful than a cheerful, hopeful, 
happy old age. And such an old age is the herit- 
age only of those who trust in Christ. As the 



94 C. E. B. 

head-spring of the river that flows so grandly into 
the sea is far up among the hills, so the life of 
faith, which ends in a triumphant death, must be- 
gin in youth, and must grow with our growth. 
Conversion in old age will, doubtless, secure sal- 
vation, as did conversion on the cross; but the 
piety that blesses the world, and to which an en- 
trance is administered abundantly, must have 
been tested and strengthened by the experience 
of years. 



THE YOUNG ORIOLES. 

We found a curious nest on one of our oak- 
trees. In it were five orioles, not yet fledged. 
We moved the nest to a lower limb of the tree, 
so that we could watch the development of the 
birdlings. This frightened the parent birds, and 
they deserted them. The little hungry crea- 
tures opened their mouths wide and cried for 
food ; so we prepared bread and milk and fed 
them. In the evening we brought the nest into 
the house and covered it with cotton to keep 
the fledgelings warm. For a week or more they 
grew rapidly. Their appetites were insatiable. 



THE YOUNG ORIOLES. 95 

Look at the nest when we would, we saw five 
open mouths. The amount of bread and milk 
they consumed was enormous. Out of that 
bread and milk they made bones and flesh, and 
feathers of different colors, until they became 
strong and beautiful. How wonderful the proc- 
ess! When first found they were featherless, 
bony, scrawny — five as ugly-looking things as 
could be imagined. They were half mouth, and 
the mouth nearly always open; but by filling 
those open mouths with simple food they were 
changed to pretty and active birds, clothed in 
plumage of bright and varied hues. How could 
all that strength and quickened life and beauty 
come from bread and milk? What naturalist 
can explain the mystery? Where can he find, 
in either the bread or milk, the material out of 
which to make a scarlet feather? 

Well, for more than a week our birdlings 
throve on their bread and milk, and under their 
cotton covering. We thought they were thor- 
oughly acclimated to their indoor life ; but a 
night came a little colder than usual. The birds 
were strong enough to push off their covering. 
In the morning they were chilled, their throats 



gb c. e. b. 

sore, and their voices hoarse. From that time 
they drooped, and one by one they died. Poor 
little orioles! Our orphan asylum for them was 
not a success. 

As I watched those birds I thought they could 
teach us some things in regard to our human 
nestlings. All children, like the young orioles, 
are open-mouthed; they are wonderfully recep- 
tive; they believe everything that you tell them, 
and they want you to be telling them something 
all the time. Out of what you tell the children 
they make that which is more valuable than 
parti-colored feathers. They make character. 
What the man or woman is to be, in spirit, in 
temper, in destiny, is often determined in the 
nursery. How important, then, that all the in- 
fluences surrounding our children be pure. How 
sad to have their young ears and minds filled 
with that which is silly or vile. When those 
young orioles opened their mouths so confiding- 
ly, how cruel it would have been to put poison 
in them. But there are persons who treat chil- 
dren so. There are servants hired to take care 
of them who frighten them with ghost stories, 
or who teach them to deceive. Whatever else 



THE YOUNG ORIOLES. 97 

the mother neglects, let her not neglect her little 
children; let her be their earliest teacher; let 
her not permit any one else to make upon their 
plastic natures those first impressions which are 
indelible. 

Another lesson, akin to this, those birdies 
taught me. If, that chilly night, the mother 
oriole had hovered over them, they would not 
have suffered and sickened as they did under 
the artificial covering. That covering seemed to 
meet their wants well enough for a time; but 
when a change of temperature came it failed, 
and they perished. So with all outside arrange- 
ments for the care and culture of our children; 
so with all substitutes for true home cherishing. 
The day-school and the Sunday-school are use- 
ful, but they can not take the place which God 
ordained that the parent should fill. There is 
no love on earth like mother love; there is no 
place so warm and safe for the child as its 
mother's breast. If cherished there with Chris- 
tian faith, as well as instinctive parental affec- 
tion, the world will not easily* chill it; but it will 
grow in moral Strength and beauty. Napoleon 
once said: "What France needs is mothers." 
7 



98 C. E. B. 

I sometimes think we might almost say the same 
of this country. The mother of the olden time, 
who lived for her children, and whom they 
clung to and confided in as their best friend, is 
becoming obsolete. Children are turned over 
to hired nurses and teachers. Many of their 
noblest affections are chilled, and they do not 
grow up either as good or as happy as when 
the home was as a nest where all the birdlings 
were warmly cherished until strong enough to 
go out into the world. 



FENCING IN CALIFORNIA. 

We are building a new fence to-day. Have I 
described our California fences? An Eastern 
farmer would laugh. at them. We take pickets of 
red wood, split pickets about five feet long and 
about three inches thick each way. We sharpen 
one end and drive it into the ground ten or twelve 
inches. We set the pickets about a foot apart, 
then we nail on them, near the top, a strip of fir 
six inches wide. This is our fence, and it is 
both strong and durable. We have such fences 



FENCING IN CALIFORNIA. 99 

on our farm that are twenty years old. It would 
not be a good fence in Ohio or Indiana, but it is 
an excellent one here, for two reasons: First, the 
red wood does not rot in the ground ; and, sec- 
ond, there is no frost to disturb the foot of the 
picket. It is as firm as a post set two feet deep 
is in a land whose winters are severe. The rea- 
son why the fence is so strong, though the pick- 
ets are small, and driven into the ground only a 
little way, is that all are fastened together. The 
strip of fir nailed to each makes each a part of 
the whole. One of those pickets standing alone, 
a child could pull up or push over. But when 
the most unruly animal tries to move or break 
the fence, it finds that it must raise a hundred 
pickets before it can get any one of them out of 
the ground. Until a picket is loosened from the 
strip of fir the fence is secure. Its strength is in 
its unity. 

As we were building this fence, to-day, I 
thought it is just what a church ought to be. No 
Christian alone has much strength or influence. 
Even though really and consciously in Christ, 
he is like one of our pickets driven but a few 
inches into the soil — he is easily moved. But 



100 C. E. B. 

if a company of Christians band together and 
strengthen each other— if they pray together and 
talk often with each other, they become like our 
completed fence. They form a barrier that resists 
the world and the wicked one. I have seen a vic- 
ious animal, horned and cloven-footed, dash 
against one of our red-wood fences, hoping to 
break it. Foiled in this, I have seen him rush 
along it looking for a loose picket, or a defect of 
some kind, keen-eyed to detect any weakness and 
prompt to take advantage of it. And so does 
the great adversary go about the churches. He 
watches for divisions, alienations, jealousy and 
strife. Whenever and wherever the unity of the 
Spirit is broken he rushes in. He knows that he 
can not succeed as long as Christians love each 
other and help each other. He heard that won- 
derful prayer of Jesus — "that they all may be 
one." He knows that just so far as that prayer 
is answered his efforts are hopeless. And hence 
he tries to break the brotherhood of believers ; he 
tries to loosen the attachment of the Christian to 
the church ; to alienate him from his minister, or 
from some of the members; tries to persuade him 
that he is able to stand alone ; does not need the 



101 

influence of the prayer-meeting, or the aid and 
sympathy of his brethren. The church is to the 
Christian what the strip of fir is to the pickets. 
It gives them unity and strength ; it makes each 
help all, and all help each. If there is any one 
lesson that we especially need to learn just now, 
and that we are sadly slow to learn, it is the les- 
son of brotherly love, of that Church unity which 
results from a sense of our individual weakness 
and of the wisdom and love of Christ in uniting 
us, not only to himself, but to each other. 



"GOD BLESSED FOREVER." 

We think of God as omnipotent, all-wise, holy, 
just and good. But do we realize that he is the 
happiest, as well as the greatest and the best, of 
beings? On the earth, power and wisdom do 
not bring peace and joy to human hearts. The 
trail of the serpent is not over the low places only, 
but over the mountain-tops. Even those who love 
and serve God are never perfectly blessed. As 
long as they are in the body they must share, to 
some degree, in the sad heritage of the race. 



102 C. E. B. 

But he who is God over all is blessed forever- 
more. So the inspired writers tell us, and so it 
must be, or he is imperfect, and therefore not di- 
vine. It may be profitable for us to meditate 
upon this statement in regard to our heavenly- 
Father. 

(i.) He must be happy, absolutely and always, 
because, though ever busy, he is never weary. 
He creates worlds and systems as easily as we 
converse with our friends. He speaks, and it is 
done; he commands, and it stands fast. And the 
government of his vast empire does not oppress 
him. He is not anxious and worried about the 
revolutions of the planets, or the actions of his 
intelligent creatures. With a touch of his hand, 
nay, with a volition, he controls them all. We 
enter upon our work in the morning with enthu- 
siasm, but how soon do we find the early fresh- 
ness and vigor failing! How often do we drag 
through the daily task wearily and in pain ! But 
with God it is always morning. Though he is the 
ancient of days, the dew of youth is ever upon 
him. "Hast thou not heard that the everlasting 
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the 



"GOD BLESSED FOREVER. IO3 

earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 
xl. 28.) 

(2.) Another element of God's blessedness is 
certainty. He knows the end from the beginning. 
He saw from eternity just how everything would 
come out. Hence for him there are no anxieties 
and no disappointments. We wake in the morn- 
ing with plans for the day ; we hope to accomplish 
something; we toil and struggle, hour after hour; 
we encounter obstacles of which we had not 
dreamed ; we lie down at night not only weary, 
but discouraged. How can we work with inter- 
est and with hope when all is so uncertain? when 
failure often follows our best laid plans, and our 
most persevering efforts? 

(jJp&A third element of God's blessedness is 
purity. He is conscious that his plans and pur- 
poses are not only right, but benevolent. He 
knows that he is doing that which is best. He 
can not act from any base motive, from envy, 
jealousy, or narrow selfishness. His nature is 
love, and love is the well-spring of joy. 

(4.) But we may add, rather as a consequence 
of these elements than as an additional one, that 
God can never experience regret or remorse. He 



104 C. E. 13. 

can recall no errors in the past to mourn over. 
His memory brings up only a succession of tri- 
umphs; of great plans fully accomplished; of 
good intentions that have ripened into a rich fruit- 
age of benevolence. 

(5.) But there are those to whom God's ways 
seem dark. They are his intelligent creatures ; he 
has made them; he loves them; he wants them 
to appreciate and confide in him. Do not their 
doubts and fears trouble him? No! For he sees 
that in a little while they will understand it all, 
and then what are baffling mysteries will be lu- 
minous illustrations of his love. He sees that the 
temporary struggle of faith will enhance the joy 
of its final triumph; that the light afflictions 
which are for a moment will work out a far more 
exceeding and an eternal weight of glory. Hence, 
when the crushed and bleeding hearts of his re_ 
deemed cry, '' ' O, Lord, how long?" he answers, 
"What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
shalt know hereafter." 

(6.) But there are men and devils who hate 
God. Does not this dim his blessedness? No; 
for he tells us that he will make their wrath to 
praise him. How he will do this we can not now 



" GOD BLESSED FOREVER. IOJ 

know, and it is useless for us to conjecture. We 
take the statement on the word of Him who can 
not lie. We believe that since, notwithstanding 
his power and love, he has permitted sin to enter 
the world, he will so control it that it shall not 
only fail to thwart any of his plans, but shall pro- 
mote his glory. 

Then we may accept, in all its fullness, the in- 
spired statement that "God is blessed forever. ,, 
We may rejoice in the fact that there is one Being, 
the worthiest and the best of all, who is perfectly 
happy. 

But are we glad that God is blessed forever, 
only for his sake, and because we love him? Have 
we no personal interest in this truth? We want to 
be happy; we hope to be; and our hope is in 
God. Yet he can not give what he has not. He 
can not, by shining on our hearts, make them 
brighter than his own. If there are clouds over 
his Spirit, he can not enable the spirits that trust 
him to walk in the light ; he can not lead them in 
a path that shall shine more and more unto the 
perfect day. Then all our expectation of a blessed 
immortality rests upon this great fact in regard to 
God. We shall be like him when we see him as 



106 C. E. B. 

he is. We shall be changed into the same image 
from glory unto glory. 

When clouds darken around us ; when sadness 
and sorrow fill our hearts, let us remember that 
we are heirs of God — of God the blessed forever 
— that he has for us an inheritance that is incor- 
ruptible and undefiled, and that can never fade 
away ; that at his right hand there are pleasures 
forevermore. If we are his we are allied with the 
source and center of all felicity. We may suffer 
here for a few days, but he can and will comfort 
us; and when we are made perfect, through suf- 
fering, he will take into his fullness of joy. 

Thus, in meditating upon the blessedness of 
our heavenly Father, we brighten our hopes; we 
learn to prize more highly our union with him 
through Christ. It insures not merely our deliv- 
erance from sin, but that fruition of peace and joy 
which the Bible calls everlasting life — the holy, 
happy life of God. 



KINDLING AND QUENCHING. IO7 

KINDLING AND QUENCHING. 

Another lesson from familiar things: I was 
trying to make a fire on the hearth ; the flame 
was feeble. One who wished to help me brought 
me a quantity of damp shavings, and put them 
upon the fire. There was a dense smoke for a 
time, and then the fire went out. Now, I had 
to begin again. I kindled some dry splinters 
with a match, and added to them little by little. 
Slowly the fire grew in brightness and in strength. 
After awhile I put on the damp shavings, but 
not all at once, and soon they were dried and 
consumed. And then I thought of that exhor- 
tation in 2 Thessalonians: ' 'Quench not the 
Spirit. " Fire is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. 
He came down in tongues of fire on the day 
of Pentecost. If his influences may be quenched, 
they may be kindled, too ; and the latter proc- 
ess is the reverse of the former. How, then, 
may we secure that special glow of Christian 
feeling which we call a revival of religion? I 
answer: Let each begin in his own heart; begin 
with some one truth or duty; get freshly inter- 
ested in some promise, in some relation of Christ 



108 C. E. B. 

or the Holy Spirit to our spiritual wants; medi- 
tate upon this, thank God for it, study the truths 
related to it and suggested by it. In this way 
the affections and hopes of the heart will be 
kindled and begin to burn within us. Now, 
with this quickened spiritual life, begin to work 
for Christ. Don't try to do some great thing; 
but take up some little cross; discharge some 
near but neglected duty; endeavor to interest 
your family, or your neighbors, in spiritual 
things; begin to talk with your brethren in the 
church; speak in the prayer-meeting, briefly and 
warmly; encourage your minister; if you know 
of any stumbling-block in the way, go and re- 
move it, if possible. So, little by little, you may 
add fuel to the holy flame, and see it extend 
to other hearts, while it grows stronger in your 
own. Merely wishing and praying for a revival, 
or seeking it by multiplying meetings and means, 
when the people's hearts are cold and damp 
with worldliness, will end only in smoke. We 
need, in this matter, to study the laws of mind, 
and the illustrations of those laws in nature. 
Better hasten slowly — do a little, and do it well, 
and then a little more — than to try to do a great 






KINDLING AND QUENCHING. 1 09 

deal at once, as he did who threw the shavings 
on my fire. 

On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came sud- 
denly. But the disciples had been, with one 
accord, in one place for ten days. All that time 
they had been talking about Christ, and pray- 
ing to him, and preparing their hearts for the 
kindling from on high. Our Savior did not send 
the Spirit down as soon as he ascended, for the 
disciples needed a special preparation. And so 
it is, even now, in all our churches, and in all 
our hearts. If we wait patiently for the Lord, 
and work wisely while we wait, he will come 
suddenly to his temple. 

But when the holy fire has been kindled, why 
does it not burn on? If a score of sinners have 
been converted, why not a hundred? if a hun- 
dred, why not a thousand? Is God's power 
limited? Does his love fail? No; we quench 
the Spirit. How? In various ways. Let me 
specify two or three of them. First, a fire may 
be smothered. Cover it with rubbish; it will 
smolder awhile, and then expire. Many revi- 
vals are smothered. People try to use them for 
selfish purposes — to burn up their rubbish with 



MO C. E. B. 

them. They become unwilling to make sacri- 
fices for God ; to give him the fuel of consecrated 
hearts for his work. They ask and expect him 
to bless them, while they cherish a worldly spirit, 
a spirit of self-righteousness, of sectarian gratu- 
lation and pride, and then they wonder that the 
bright and beautiful blaze departs, and there is 
nothing left but smoke. 

Another way, nearly allied to this, is want of 
ventilation. A fire can not burn without air; 
and a revival can not continue without the breath 
of the Spirit. He is the wind as well as the 
fire. He must sustain, by his abiding agency, 
the flame that he has kindled. But when the 
fire is burning brightly we are tempted to forget 
our dependence on the Spirit. We begin to 
look upon it as our fire. We enjoy it. We 
want to keep it up. We shut all the dampers. 
We heap ashes upon it. We exclude the draft 
which comes from heaven and draws heaven- 
ward. And soon we find, alas! that the Spirit 
has been grieved away; our fire is out, and our 
hearts are cold. 

A third way that fire is quenched I may illus- 
trate by a deserted 






KINDLING AND QUENCHING. I 1 1 

CAMP-FIRE. 

Last night they heaped up logs, kindled them, 
and had a cheerful blaze. But the ends of the 
logs that were brought together, and that by 
their contact kept each other burning, burned 
off after awhile, and then the logs fell apart. 
The very fire that was kept aglow by their con- 
tact tended to separate them. When the camp- 
ers left, there was no one to push these logs 
together from time to time, so they became 
more widely separated as they burned, until there 
was a circle of half-charred brands, with a heap 
of cold ashes in the center. Fuel enough, but 
the fire had gone out. So we have all seen 
churches that, having enjoyed special influences 
of the Holy Spirit, seem colder, by the contrast, 
than if they had not been revived. There are 
half-awakened sinners around them, like those 
charred brands, but the fire smolders in ashes. 
Why? They who brought together the fuel for 
the fire neglected to keep it together. But Satan 
did not neglect his work. He takes a great 
interest in revivals. He has temptations pre- 
pared for them. If he can only persuade Chris- 
tians that special efforts to preserve the unity 



112 C. E. B. 

of the Spirit are not necessary now; if he can 
only make them jealous of each other, and get 
them to criticising each other, he quenches the 
Spirit as effectually as if he poured a flood of 
water upon it. Never do Christians need to be 
more watchful, humble and prayerful than in the 
midst of a revival. The sacred fire should never 
go out. It need not. Use the same means to 
keep it burning that you used in kindling it, 
and it may abide with you, in its beauty and 
its blessedness, for years. 



FREEZING. 

Yesterday morning I found the thermometer 
down to 2 5 . I went to the horse-trough in the 
corral, and lo ! there was ice upon it nearly 
an inch thick. I said to the water: "Why did 
you freeze?" It seemed to reply: "You shut me 
up here, so that I could not move and keep 
warm; and how could I help it?" I went to my 
pond, and asked the same question. The water 
there replied: "You stopped me with that dam, 
and while it kept me from flowing the cold caught 



FREEZING. 113 

me." I went to the little mountain stream, and 
there was no ice — not even along its shores. It 
was running and singing, just as in the brightest 
summer day. And I said to it: "Why didn't 
you freeze last night, as the water in the trough 
and the pond did?" And it seemed to say, as it 
hurried by: "I was too busy; I was too busy." 
And then I said to myself: "Little stream, 
thou hast taught me a lesson. If I would be 
happy, I must be active and useful." And as I 
recalled the past, with its many days of sadness, 
I saw that the heart was never chilled, merely be- 
cause of afflictions or disappointments, but be- 
cause its best affections were checked in their 
flowing; and I understood how .such earnest and 
faithful Christians as Paul could rejoice even in 
distresses and persecutions — could sing even in 
the most adverse worldly circumstances. They 
were too busy to freeze. My little rivulet flows 
in a narrow and rugged channel ; it tumbles over 
many rocks, and frets upon their jagged edges; 
but, because its channel is so strait and rough, it 
flows the faster, it sings the merrier, and it refuses 
the more persistently to freeze, as the stagnant 

waters do. 
8 



ii4 c - E - B - 

I give my winter morning's lesson to my read- 
ers, thinking that some of them may need it, 
and hoping that they will so learn it, that they 
will never, henceforth, complain of spiritual cold- 
ness when there is so much to be done for Christ, 
and when, if we try to do it, he will not fail to 
bless us. 



FIGHTING FIRE. 

Last week one of my neighbors kindled a fire 
to burn the stubble in his fields. It soon got be- 
yond his control and came sweeping into an adja- 
cent field of ours. In that field were a stack of 
hay and a quantity of straw that we intended to 
stack. In the next field were our house, barn 
and granary. The wind was fresh, and toward 
our home. If that fire was not arrested it would 
gather such strength as it advanced that it would 
be irresistible. We summoned all our forces to 
the attack. Our neighbors came to help us. We 
fought the fire for several hours, along a line of 
half a mile. When subdued in one place it would 
break out in another. When we thought it en- 



FIGHTING FIRE. I 15 

tirely out, a single spark that escaped would sud- 
denly blaze up, and, caught by the wind, the 
flames would spread with fearful rapidity. We 
had to watch as well as work. But we succeeded 
in saving our property. Late in the afternoon we 
quenched the last spark, and felt safe. But it was 
Saturday. I had an appointment to preach sev- 
enty-five miles away. I could not start while my 
home was in peril. So the cars went without me, 
and a congregation was disappointed. Little did 
the man who started that fire think it would affect 
the Sabbath services in a church so far away. But 
we are so connected together in this life that we 
can not tell how wide may be the influence of our 
most careless act or word. 

My personal experience with this fire has given 
me a keener sympathy with those who suffer in 
the great conflagrations of the Northwest. It 
must be sad, indeed, to see the flames devouring 
fences, crops and homes ! Is it not strange that 
fire and water, the two most useful elements in 
nature, are the most destructive? We could not 
live without these elements ; yet, when they get 
beyond our control, they seem like demons, so 
madly do they devour our property and our lives. 



Il6 C. E. B. 

And I could not help thinking of that passage 
in James (chapter iii. 5): ''Behold, how great a 
matter a little fire kindleth! " He says the tongue 
is the fire. Idle words, reckless words, may kin- 
dle strife that will rage for years. Unkind words, 
though spoken thoughtlessly and in jest, may 
burn into a sensitive human heart and blight its 
happiness. Speech, like fire, is a great blessing; 
but it may become as great a curse. Our words, 
like the fires we kindle, are very likely to run 
over, or through the fences that divide us from 
our neighbors. In nothing do we all need so 
much wisdom and so much grace as in ruling our 
tongues. A thought in the heart is comparatively 
safe. We can ponder it well before we utter it. 
But a thought once spoken we can not tell where 
it may go — what harm it may do. Wise was the 
Roman who said obsta principiis — resist the first 
beginnings. Stop the fire as soon as it starts. 
Stop the water as soon as it begins to trickle 
through the embankment. Break off the evil 
habit as soon as it is formed — as soon as its first 
link is forged. "Leave off contention, before it 
be meddled with." (Proverbs xvii. 14.) 






THE WATCHMEN. II7 



THE WATCHMEN. 



The flood last week undermined a section of 
the railroad track. It was repaired as promptly 
as possible. But when I passed over it the water 
was still high, and it was not considered entirely 
safe. So men were stationed all along, a few rods 
apart, to watch the track and to warn the trains, 
if necessary. There they stood, hour after hour, 
in mud ankle deep, the storm beating on them, 
each holding a little flag in one hand to signal the 
train, and a shovel in the other to keep open the 
water-courses, or to repair the embankment. They 
stood there because they were paid for it. And 
yet they felt that their position was responsible. 
If any one of them had seen that the embank- 
ment was washed away, yet failed to warn the 
train, his own conscience and the world would 
have condemned him. The engineer went on, 
slowly it is true, yet steadily, gazing at the watch- 
men, and feeling safe as long as no red flag was 
waved. The passengers looked out of the win- 
dows, a little nervous perhaps, but reassured by 
seeing how numerous, and apparently vigilant, 
the watchmen were. 



n8 e. e. b. 

God calls ministers of the gospel his watchmen. 
And the fact impressed on me by this railroad in- 
cident was, that people look to ministers for direc- 
tion and warning. If a minister says, "Go on, 
you are safe," they are comforted in sin. They 
reply to the suggestions of conscience: "Don't 
worry, the minister says we are all right. " Hence, 
great and solemn is the responsibility of him who 
prophesies smooth things; who proclaims that 
God is too good to punish sin; that somehow, 
somewhere in the universe, and sometime in the 
great future, all will be made happy, no matter 
how they live and die. Such watchmen will have 
a fearful reckoning, not only with God, whose 
message they perverted, but with men w T hom they 
lulled into carnal security. 

And this applies not only to those who teach 
error, but to those who proclaim the truth so 
tamely that their hearers don't think they really 

believe it. Said a worldly man: "If Mr. A 

should tell me that my house is on fire as coldly 
and formally as he tells me about 'the vengeance 
of eternal fire,' I should think he didn't mean 
what he said." I don't believe that many minis- 
ters, who call themselves evangelical, are as cold 



CALIFORNIA IN I 846. I 19 

and formal as Mr. A . But the thing want- 
ing in many of our pulpits is earnestness. Our 
sermons are logical and scholarly. They are de- 
livered gracefully, and even forcibly; yet they do 
not make men tremble. Let us feel ourselves, 
more deeply, what we preach, and we will make 
others feel. Oh ! think, herald of salvation, some 
of your hearers may be in eternity before next 
Sabbath. Are you ready to meet them there, 
ready to answer both for the matter and manner 
of your message to them? May not some of 
thern say, "If you had been more earnest when 
you preached to me I might have been saved?" 



CALIFORNIA IN 1846. 

Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., one of the pioneer 
missionaries of the American Home Missionary 
Society to this coast, has just published a volume 
entitled "Thirty Years in California." It brings 
up some facts which show on what small hinges, 
apparently, the destinies of States and nations 
may turn. In 1846 there were already many im- 
migrants and adventurers from the United States 



120 C. E. B. 

and Europe here. They knew nothing of the ex- 
istence of gold, but regarded the country as valu- 
able on account of its fine climate and its possible 
commercial relations with Asia and the island 
world of the Pacific. They felt that in order to 
develop its resources, it ought to be no longer a 
Mexican province, but an independent State, un- 
der the protection of some great commercial na- 
tion. The majority of the settlers favored a 
British protectorate. The British Government 
was advised of their views, and had a fleet in the 
Pacific watching the course of events, and ready 
to take possession as soon as there was any action 
of the people that would afford a pretext. The 
United States Government had advices from its 
friends here, who, though few in number, were 
very decided and energetic. It had also a fleet 
on this side of the continent, with instructions to 
act in certain emergencies. A convention met at 
Santa Barbara in March, 1846. The Americans, 
finding the British in a majority, succeeded in 
procuring an adjournment. Before that conven- 
tion met again war broke out between the United 
States and Mexico. There were no telegraphs in 
those days. The news crept slowly across the 



CALIFORNIA IN 1 846. 121 

continent and reached the American commander 
at Mazatlan and the British commander at San 
Bias at about the same time. Both knew that the 
decisive hour for California had come. Both at 
once weighed anchor and set sail for Monterey. 
Commodore Sloat arrived first, hoisted the stars 
and stripes, and took possession of the country in 
the name of the United States. Eight days later 
Admiral Seymour, in the British ship Colling- 
wood, entered the harbor. He was too late. 
What he would have done, had he come first, is 
known only to him and his Government. But 
the impression is that he had such authority to 
act from the city of Mexico, as well as from Lon- 
don, that we should have had to face the possibil- 
ity of a struggle with England or abandon Cali- 
fornia. Little did either party know of the real 
value of the prize, and how much depended upon 
the relative speed of those war-ships up the coast. 
Again, in February, 1846, the packet ship 
Brooklyn sailed from New York with 260 Mor- 
mons on board. They were the advance guard 
of the westward movement planned by Brigham 
Young. It is now evident that his objective point 
was not Salt Lake, but the Pacific Ocean. He 



122 C. E. B. 

had learned about California from the explorations 
of Fremont and thought he could buy it, or 
enough of it for his purposes, from the Mexican 
Government. Hence, he sent this ship, with a 
colony on board well supplied with agricultural 
implements and arms, and then started overland 
with the rest of his people. The Brooklyn 
reached San Francisco on the thirty-first of July, 
after an unusually long voyage. It found the stars 
and stripes floating over the harbor. Bitter was 
the disappointment of the colonists. Messengers 
were sent overland to meet Brigham Young, and 
the result was that he stopped at Salt Lake. If 
that column of 15,000 Mormons had reached San 
Francisco when it was a village, with only a few 
hundred inhabitants, it might be to-day the head- 
quarters of the Latter-Day Saints. Had the- 
Brooklyn arrived a t month earlier, the colonists 
upon her could have taken possession of the har- 
bor at least, and their prior occupancy would have 
complicated matters in the settlement of the em- 
bryo city. These two narrow escapes in July, 
1846, from a British protectorate and a Mormon 
occupancy, the atheist may say were lucky for Cal- 



CALIFORNIA IN 1 846. I 23 

ifornia. But we see in them the will and purpose 
of Him who holds the winds in his hands. 

OTHER PROVIDENCES. 

It was important that the title to this country- 
should be definitely settled, and a strong Govern- 
ment established before the gold-hunters rushed 
here from all the world. Look at the coincidence 
of time in this regard. The treaty of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, by which Mexico ceded California to 
the United States, was signed February 2, 1848. 
On that same day Marshall rode in from Sutter's 
Mill with the grains of gold that he had found in 
digging the race. The land was ours by the 
treaty, and now the golden news went forth to 
summon thousands to occupy it. If gold had 
been found before that treaty was signed, Mexico 
might not have been so willing to cede the coun- 
try to us. She thought she was surrendering what 
was of little value. 

How narrowly California escaped being a slave 
State few people now understand. Congress 
would not give it a Territorial Government, for 
it was in the midst of the Kansas-Nebraska agita- 
tion. So the people met and adopted a State 



124 c - E - B - 

Constitution; and, being then mostly miners, 
they put in an article prohibiting slavery. Soon 
after the Constitution was adopted there was a 
large migration from the Southern States. Many 
planters came with their slaves. They saw that 
the fertile plains of this coast were admirably 
adapted for large estates, and for the prosperity 
of the patriarchal institution. If California had 
been a Territory then, slavery would, no doubt, 
have been established here, and when the great 
Rebellion came the State might have joined the 
Southern Confederacy and been desolated by 
civil war. It was a manifest providence that that 
question was settled so early, for in i860 the peo- 
ple were nearly equally divided, and there was a 
sectional contest here almost equal to that in the 
Border States on the other side of the mountains. 



THE GOLDEN KEY. 

" Prayer is the golden key that unlocks the 
treasure-house of grace." So writes one who had 
often used that key. The figure is suggestive. If 
we would open a door that is locked, we must have 



THE GOLDEN KEY. 125 

the key that fits the lock. We might have a hun- 
dred different keys, and try them all in vain. 
Such locks as men secure their treasure-houses 
with are complicated. They have many wards, 
and the key must be adapted to them all. It 
must be made, or at least a pattern of it, by him 
who made the lock. So here God only knows 
the conditions on which he can and will bestow 
blessings upon us. Hence he only can teach us 
how to pray. And he has taught us. In the 
Bible he has revealed all the wards of the lock, 
and told us just how to unlock it. He says: 
"Ask, and ye shall receive." But, evidently, he 
does not mean that any kind of asking will do. 
If we ask carelessly, selfishly, irreverently, we 
can not expect that God will hear us. James 
was inspired to announce that some who ask re- 
ceive not, because they ask amiss. It is import- 
ant, then, to know just how to ask — to get God's 
idea of prayer, in order that we may offer to him 
that which will be acceptable and effectual. We 
want to have the exact pattern that he has given 
us of the golden key. 

There is nothing arbitrary or unreasonable in 
this matter. The conditions of prevailing prayer 



126 C. E. B. 

all grow out of the character of God and our 
relations to him. 

The first ward of the lock is the greatness of 
God. He is Lord overall. He is " holy in all 
his ways, and perfect in all his works." Hence 
his creatures must adore him. They must come 
before him with reverence and godly fear. The 
angels that surround the throne bow on their 
faces, crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
Almighty." And yet we have heard men pray 
as if God was their equal or even their servant. 
Such men are trying to pick the lock, or to open 
it with a wooden key. 

The second ward is the goodness of God. He 
has bestowed upon us many mercies. These we 
must recognize when we ask for more. We must 
go to him with thanksgiving and praise, if we 
expect to be heard. An ungrateful suppliant 
shows that he will not appreciate the good he 
seeks ; for he despises that which he has already 
received. To hear his prayers would be casting 
pearls before swine. 

A third ward is the wisdom of God. The 
prayer that suits this, "is: "Not my will, but 
thine, be done." God will answer every true 



THE GOLDEN KEY. \2J 

prayer. But he will not give just what the sup- 
pliant asks for, unless that is what he really needs 
and ought to have. He will give according to 
his knowledge, and not according to our igno- 
rance. He who thinks he is wiser than God, 
who insists upon a literal answer to his prayer, 
who is not willing to take what his heavenly 
Father sees to be best, is wanting in filial con- 
fidence. He practically denies one of God's 
noblest attributes; and while he cherishes this 
dictatorial spirit he must ask amiss. 

These elements — adoration, gratitude and hu- 
mility — would be essential to true prayer if we 
had not sinned. But the fall made it necessary 
to add new wards to the lock. We are told 
what they are, and how to adapt the key to 
them. We have violated the Law of God in 
deed and word and thought. This we must con- 
fess. Only the prayer of the penitent can reach 
the ear of the Holy One. And seeking forgive- 
ness, we must forgive. Wc must cultivate the 
spirit "towards others which we ask God to show 
towards us. We must try to forsake the sins 
that we confess and seek pardon for. We are 
not to continue in sin that grace may abound. 



128 C. E. B. 

If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will 
not hear us. 

And, finally, we must fix our faith upon the 
plan of justification, which God has revealed. 
We must go to him in the name of Christ. We 
must plead Christ's obedience and sacrifice in 
our behalf. We must look up as we pray to our 
divine Advocate in the midst of the throne. We 
must realize that he can take our most imperfect 
prayer, if only it is sincere, and so reoffer it that 
it will be as sweet incense before God. 

And praying thus, with adoration, gratitude 
and humility; with the spirit of penitence, for- 
giveness, obedience, and faith in Christ, we are 
yet to remember that we are ignorant, although 
God has taken such pains to instruct us; that, 
after all, we know not what to pray for as we 
ought. But there is given to us a divine Helper. 
The Holy Spirit will indite our petitions for us, 
and thus we may pray in the spirit, and may be 
certain that our supplications will be according to 
the will of God. 

There is a great deal of what men call prayer 
that is neither " fervent' ' nor "effectual." It 
lacks some essential element of true prayer. It 



GROWTH MEANS GOD. I 29 

fails to meet one or more of the necessary condi- 
tions of prevailing prayer. The suppliant thrusts 
a key into the lock ; but not being the right key, 
it does not open the door, and he goes away un- 
blessed. How important to study what God has 
told us about prayer, and to cultivate the spirit 
which will enable us to come acceptably before 
him. And how happy is the man who has the 
golden key, and the Holy Spirit to teach him 
how to use it. 



GROWTH MEANS GOD. 

I have just been feeding my stock — horses and 
colts, cows and calves, hogs and pigs. I fed 
them all with hay. They all ate it greedily, for it 
was good hay ; and they all seemed to be doing well. 
While they were eating I was thinking. And as 
it is too wet to plow this morning, I will write my 
thoughts. These colts are growing: growing 
means more bone, more muscle, more fat, more 
teeth enameled, more hoof, more hide, more hair, 
more mane, more tail, larger eyes, more nerves, 
more tendons, lengthened arteries and veins, a 
9 



130 C. E. B. 

proportional enlargement of the heart, the lungs, 
the digestive organs, the viscera, etc., etc. It 
takes a thousand things to make a colt, and there 
must be something added to each of these thou- 
sand things every day, as the colt increases in size 
and becomes a horse. Now where does the colt 
get a little more all the time to add to these thou- 
sand things? All out of the hay. The dried 
grass that I feed him furnishes bone and flesh and 
skin and hair; and it goes just where it is needed. 
It goes to the different parts of the animal in just 
the right proportions. It does not make too 
much of any one thing, or fail to make enough of 
any. 

Now take that dried grass to the most skillful 
chemist. Tell him to analyze it, and see if he 
can get flesh and bone and hair out of it as the 
colt does, and he will tell you that he can not do 
any such thing. The wonder to me is that my 
colts, and everybody else's colts the world over, 
can do what these men of science can't do. 

But here is something stranger yet. The 
calves eat the same hay, and they make out of it 
differently shaped bones and hoofs, different flesh 
and fat, from that which the colts make. They 



GROWTH MEANS GOD. I 3 I 

make horns, too, and the colts don't. And the 
cows, feeding beside the horses, make milk out 
of the hay, and milk is a very curious liquid. It 
contains caseine and albumen, and ever so many 
other ingredients, all of which come from the hay. 
And out of that same hay the pig makes pork 
and bristles. And the hens go into the hay-mow, 
and eat the heads of the hay; and they make 
from these heads feathers, eggs, beaks, talons and 
gizzards, none of which the cattle have. Isn't 
there something strange about this? It seems to 
me that if I had in my barn at feeding-time one 
of the wise men who think that they can explain 
everything; that we don't need any God; that 
their theory of evolution and their laws of nature 
are sufficient for making the world and for keep- 
ing it a-going — it seems to me that I could puzzle 
him by just pointing to my horses, cattle and 
hogs. 

Now, suppose that I had three machines; that 
when I put hay into one of them and turned a 
crank awhile, out would come carpets of perfect 
texture and of beautiful colors. Then, if I put 
the same kind of hay into another machine, and 
turned the crank awhile, out would come sets of 



"132 C. E. B. 

porcelain, plates, cups, saucers, etc. — all perfectly 
shaped, enameled and painted. And, finally, if 
I should put the hay into a third machine, the re- 
sult would be books, well printed, elegantly 
bound and profusely illustrated. What would 
the scientists who know all about making worlds 
say to my machines ? Wouldn't they think there 
was something about them that was never dreamed 
of in their philosophy? 

But I have in my barnyard a score or more of 
machines fully as wonderful. They are working 
up the hay into hundreds of different things, and 
into just the right proportion of each, while I 
write. Did a law of nature make these machines; 
and do the laws of nature keep them a-going? Or, 
is there not a wise and powerful Being who created 
each one of them, and who superintends all their 
operations ? 

It is said that Robespierre, when he saw the 
efforts of atheism in France, exclaimed: "If 
there is no God, we must make one ; for we can 
not get along without him." So must every man 
feel who has not permitted that " dangerous 
thing," a " little learning," to magnify his self- 
conceit and minify his common sense. 



GROWTH MEANS GOD. I 33 

The tendency of positivism, and of all the in- 
fidel philosophy of our day, is to sheer atheism. 
Men want to get rid of the idea of a personal 
God — a great, wise and good Being who made, 
upholds and governs all things. But grand, sol- 
emn and mysterious as that idea is, it is the sim- 
plest explanation of the wonders that we see 
around us. The grass is growing now all over 
our hills and plains. Why ? The soil was full of 
seeds, we are told, and the rain has made them 
germinate. But water can't make grass out of 
seeds. Here is a chair factory all complete, and 
lumber piled up in it. And now a fire is kindled 
under the boiler, and the wheels revolve; but no 
chairs are turned out. Why? The chair-maker 
has not come to put the lumber into the lathes. 
Nature during winter or a drouth is like that fac- 
tory, full of lumber but without steam. Nature, 
when the sun shines and the rain falls, is like that 
factory when the steam is up and the wheels are 
in motion. Nature is God's workshop. It is 
the grand factory in which he is making all the 
while the many, the numberless things that we 
speak of as growing. With all our science we 
don't know what growing really is, and the most 



134 c - E - B - 

sensible notion we can get of it is this — the pres- 
ence of the Omnipresent One superintending the 
operation of the laws and forces that he has or- 
dained. All growth requires something higher 
and mightier than what we call law. It is not 
mechanical merely, it is vital. And as the cause 
of a thing must be greater than the thing itself, 
the cause of all this living growth must be a liv- 
ing agent. An invisible Spirit must brood over 
field and fold. That Spirit's work far transcends 
the power and skill of man. Hence, it is a super- 
human Spirit. It is the Spirit of God. Here 
we rest. We can not rest in any other idea of 
nature. 

When Mungo Park sat down in the African 
desert, alone, lost, hungry, sick, footsore, heart- 
sore, and just ready to give up in utter despair, 
he saw a little flower. It was like the vision of 
an angel. He said: "God is here. Only his 
hand could have fashioned that flower. And he 
who fashioned it can take cnre of me." So we 
should feel as we look on a blade of grass. Who- 
ever teaches the world to see God in everything 
helps to elevate and purify and bless his fellow- 
men. He who tries to dim our ideas of "a God 



ELASTICITY. ' 135 

at hand" — a God whose wondrous working is in 
all that we see and feel; a God who reads the 
thoughts of our hearts — that man is guilty not 
only of gross impiety, but of high treason against 
humanity. He is the worst enemy of his race. 
He would take away from us the basis of all vir- 
tue, of all happiness and hope. Well may we cry 
with Robespierre: "We must have a God; we 
can not get along without him;" nay, with David, 
the Psalmist: "The fool hath said in his heart, 
No God." 



ELASTICITY. 

I have in my yard iron pipes that bring water 
near the house from a distant fountain. At the 
end of the piping there is a hose of gutta percha, 
which I can turn in any direction, taking the 
stream to the kitchen, to the stable, or to the 
shrubbery, at will. While handling that hose, 
to-day, I thought what a blessing is this elasticity 
with which God has endowed certain substances, 
and what a blessing that everything is not elastic ! 
We need the solid and stable iron. We need the 



I36 C. E. B. 

pliant caoutchouc. Each has its place and its 
use. And the workman who would make a per- 
fect machine must know what parts to construct 
of hard metal, and where to put the elastic rub- 
bers and cushions. He must have pinions that 
will bear a heavy strain and constant friction. 
And he must have washers that will relieve the 
friction. In the most powerful engines made of 
highly tempered steel, elastic packing is needed. 
But he would be a sorry machinist who would 
try to make an engine all of indian rubber or 
without any. 

Our characters are like machinery, in one re- 
spect; they need a combination of elastic and of 
inelastic elements. A true man should not be 
like a fossil, all rock, or like a jelly-fish, all soft- 
ness and pliancy. Paul was a man of great firm- 
ness and decision. He said in regard to "bonds 
and afflictions,' ' "None of these things move 
me." Nay, he counted not his life dear unto 
him that he might finish his course and the min- 
istry he had received. And yet how yielding in 
some directions was this adamantine apostle. He 
could adapt himself to all circumstances. He 
had learned in whatsoever state he was, therewith 




ELASTICITY. 137 

to be content. He was made all things to all 
men that he might by all means save some, (i 
Corinthians ix. 22.) He pleased all men in all 
things, (i Corinthians x. 33.) Never for a mo- 
ment compromising principle, or swerving from 
duty, yet he was always patient, courteous, con- 
ciliatory. And observe, the pliancy of his spirit 
was intimately connected with its firmness and 
fidelity. Just when he was most fearless and de- 
cided was he most gentle — as the axle on which 
comes the hardest friction is cushioned with the 
most elastic rubber. 

The lesson of Paul's life, then, is not that men 
of iron purpose may sometimes relax and be 
amiable in spirit. But that amiability and gen- 
tleness belong to energy and decision ; that those 
strong and seemingly hard elements need the 
softer ones, and are not perfect without them. 
It is not friction with its grating harshness that 
manifests power, but smooth and noiseless motion. 
The machine that is kept well oiled accomplishes 
far more than that whose force is expended large- 
ly in tearing itself to pieces. There is no more 
important study for us all just now than that of 
mental and moral elasticity. The tendencies of 



I38 C. E. B. 

the age are to an excessive use of Indian rubber. 
We do not like friction, and to avoid it we are 
tempted to sacrifice strength and power. But we 
need not yield to this temptation. We are to 
put the anti-friction washer upon the steel jour- 
nal, and not in place of it. When we have a 
track of steel rails and wheels with chilled tires 
and an engine of brass and iron, we may add 
elastic spring and air brakes at discretion. But 
safety is first, then comfort. And this is as true 
in regard to character and to creeds, in regard to 
ourselves and to the Church, as in regard to rail- 
roads. Let us insist upon fidelity to truth always 
and in all things. To this we may add charity 
at discretion. 



START A BLAZE. 

I was sitting by an open fire this morning. 
There was a bed of live coals between the and- 
irons and some sticks of half-seasoned wood upon 
them. But the coals did not kindle the wood. 
They only heated it enough to make it smoke. 
4 'This will never do," I said; "I must get up a 



START A BLAZE. I 39 

blaze." So I took a piece of paper from my 
waste-basket and threw it upon the coals. In an 
instant it flamed up and was gone, but it started 
the fire. The flames which it brought out of the 
coals kindled upon the wood, and soon the whole 
pile was aglow. And then I thought how many 
churches need just what was needed in my fire- 
place a few moments ago. There are hearts in 
them that love God, and that long for his salva- 
tion. There are souls around them that are inter- 
ested in the truth, but not yet kindled by it. The 
problem is: How to bring the piety of the church 
so in contact with the men and women in the 
congregation, or the community, that they shall 
be awakened and converted. The church is ex- 
erting some' influence upon the people within its 
sphere, just as the coals on my hearth were grad- 
ually seasoning the wood. But this does not sat- 
isfy the true minister or the earnest Christian. He 
wants to see the impenitent, not merely respect- 
ing religion and attending its Sabbath services, 
but rejoicing in the hope that is full of glory. 
Can not the minister or the Christian do just 
what I did just now? Can't he start a blaze? 
Can't he do something that shall kindle to a glow 



I40 C. E. B. 

his own faith, and that of his brethren? Can't 
he, by one earnest effort, make the latent piety 
of the church active — set its burning coals aflame ? 
It did not require much to change my smoking 
brands to a cheerful fire — only a bit of paper. 
And any other light combustible would have done 
as well. And it may be that a little thing, which 
you hardly think worth trying, will be blessed of 
God in the revival of his work. It is not neces- 
sary to appoint a series of meetings, or to send 
for an evangelist. You have the live coals and 
the partially seasoned wood, and they are in con- 
tact with each other. It ought to be easy to kin- 
dle that v/ood. The Holy Spirit is ready to fan 
the flame as soon as it is kindled. He waits for 
us to do something in faith that he can energize 
for good. We are going over and over a round 
of duties, and asking God to bless us. He does, 
and he will. But if our work is formal, our pray- 
ers will be; and though the coals will be kept 
alive, and the wood will be slowly seasoned, we 
will not be as happy or as useful as if we had that 
living faith which sets the heart aflame. 

But some one may ask, Just how shall we start 
the blaze? I can not tell you. God will if you 



START A BLAZE. I4I 

ask him. There is not a single way of kindling, 
but many. So there are diversities of spiritual 
operation. Do the duty which Providence brings 
nearest to you. It may be personal effort to in- 
terest some one in the great salvation.. It may 
be special prayer. It may be trying to reconcile 
alienated brethren. It may be an agreement with 
others to seek, in concert, an outpouring of the 
Spirit. It may be some special work of Christian 
benevolence. It may be seeking with new earn- 
estness the conversion of your Sabbath-school 
class, or of some member of your own family. 
Whatever is pressed upon your conscience and 
your heart as important to be done for Christ and 
to be done now, go and do. "Quench not the 
Spirit." That one thing may start influences for 
good, whose full results shall be known only in 
eternity. I don't believe in getting up revivals; 
but I do believe in kindling the faith and love of 
Christians to such a glow that they shall shine as 
lights in the world. And to do this is not so 
mysterious, or so difficult, as some good people 
seem to think it is. 

A young minister once went to consult an aged 
one about the best way to labor for a revival in 



142 C. E. B. 

his church. After hearing patiently all about 
this, that and the other, the old man said: "Any 
one of the three best ways is good enough, but 
do something, and do it right off." I want to 
echo that advice. 



THE TWO FAILURES. 

I was traveling with a friend through one of 
the beautiful valleys of this State. He pointed 
to an elegant mansion surrounded by fruit and 
ornamental trees, and said: "The owner of that 
place has just failed !" "How could he fail," I 
asked, "with such a farm? Surely it should have 
supported him." "It did; but he was not satis- 
fied with a support. He wanted to be a million- 
aire, so he dabbled in stocks until he lost all. 
He inherited that splendid farm. He might have 
kept it, and been rich enough, but now he has 
lost it, and in his old age, with his expensive 
habits and large family, it is a sad failure." 
Turning in another direction, as the cars rushed 
on, my friend said: "Do you see those broad 
fields of grain? They are part of a farm of 



THE TWO FAILURES. 1 43 

three thousand acres, and it belongs to a man 
who, twenty years ago, worked by the month 
for the rich man over yonder who has just failed. 
This day -laborer was a thrifty Scotchman ; every 
dollar he earned he invested in land. He has 
kept on adding field to field until he has all the 
land he can manage, and now he loans his sur- 
plus money on mortgages. He has never specu- 
lated in stocks. He was too shrewd and cautious 
for that. He is worth several millions. What 
a contrast between his success, and the failure of 
his former employer." "Are you sure," I asked, 
''that he has really been successful? What kind 
of a man is he? liberal, public-spirited, warm- 
hearted, happy?'' "Why, as to that, I must 
confess," was the reply, "that he is the stingiest, 
meanest, most illiberal, most unpopular, and, I 
think, the most unhappy man in the neighbor- 
hood. He has no friends, no children, no home 
comforts or joys; never goes into society, never 
goes to church, never gives to any object of 
benevolence; is a dry, hard, cross old miser; 
that's the fact about him. Nobody loves him, 
or even respects him. He has nothing but his 
money, and that don't seem to do him any good." 



144 c - E - B - 

"Well," I asked, "do you call such a life suc- 
cessful? I think his failure is quite as sad, if not 
sadder, than that of the other man. The one did 
not get what he sought, and is poor because he 
is landless and moneyless. The other got what 
he sought and is poorer still; for he is soulless, 
heartless, friendless and joyless. The worst fail- 
ures in this world are those of the men who ac- 
quire wealth and don't know how to use it." 



HOW IT GROWS. 

There is a tree by my study window which 
interests me deeply, not because it is different 
from other trees, but because it is in many re- 
spects like all the trees on the earth— because it 
illustrates the law of growth. Two years ago 
that tree was only a few feet high. Now its 
head is up to the roof of the house, and its 
branches cover an area of many yards. Yet, 
though I have watched it daily, and it has grown 
luxuriantly, I have never been able to see it 
grow. It looks to-day just as it did yesterday, 
and it will look to-morrow just as it does to-day. 



HOW IT GROWS. 145 

But a month hence, I will be able to see that 
it is larger every way. So with all true growth. 
It is gradual; little by little, imperceptible at the 
time, to be known only by measurements taken 
at long intervals. If a man wakes up some Sun- 
day morning, and says to himself: "Now I am 
going to grow in grace ten or twenty degrees 
by the study and devotions of this Sabbath, " 
he will probably retire at night very much dis- 
appointed and discouraged. But if he says: "I 
will try to-day, with God's blessing, to grow in 
knowledge and in love. I will be grateful for 
the consciousness of any progress in the divine 
life. I will not stop to measure that whereunto 
I have attained, but will do what I can trusting in 
God," he will find as years roll on that his faith 
is stronger, that his hope is brighter, that Christ 
is dearer, and that heaven seems nearer. 

Christian fidelity and Christian progress, with 
the most of us, are to be in little things; and 
the more fully and cheerfully we recognize this 
fact, the better. That tree by my study win- 
dow rebukes my impatience and my unbelief. 
It says to me: "Why should you claim exemp- 
tion from the general law of growth? Here I 
10 



146 C. E. B, 

stand, day after day, pumping up a little mois- 
ture from the earth, receiving a little sunshine 
to vivify that moisture through each of my leaves, 
and making thus a million tiny wood cells under 
the bark, and tiny bud cells on the branches. 
Watch me. I do nothing by fits and starts ; 
nothing great enough to attract attention at the 
time; and yet I am doing something all the time. 
When you look at me next year you will see 
that these littles amount to a good deal." 

The lesson that the tree is teaching me I 
would like to send out to all my readers. This 
hourly fidelity in little things don't seem to be 
of much consequence, but the habits which it 
cultivates are of inestimable value, and the growth 
that will result from it— the growth that will fit 
us for the paradise above, who can foretell its 
beauty and its blessedness? 



THAT COLT SALLY. 

We thought a great deal of Sally. We halter- 
broke her almost as soon as she was born. We 
petted her, and she was so gentle and kind we 



THAT COLT SALLY. 1 47 

didn't expect to have any trouble with her. 
When plowing-time came we put her into a five- 
horse team beside one of our steadiest wheelers. 
But she would not work. She reared and 
plunged. She jumped over the tongue of the 
gang-plow. She pawed at the double-trees of 
the leaders. She balked, and then tried to run. 
She worried the whole team, exhausted the 
strength and patience of the driver, and made 
faults in the plowing in spite of all we could do. 
At night John said: "It's of no use — Sally won't 
work. I've fought with her all day, until I 
haven't a dry thread on me, and my other horses 
are as wet as rats." Well, I thought we were 
too sanguine about Sally, but that she will do 
better next day. Next day, however, it was 
as bad, or worse. The third day she fought 
and fretted just the same. We didn't know what 
to do. It looked as if the colt would conquer 
us, instead of our conquering her. 

The third day, in the afternoon, just after 
Sally had made one of her furious assaults on 
the double-tree, John said: 'Til stop that, any- 
way." So he took out his near leader, and put 
him at the tongue, and put Sally in his place. 



I48 C. E. B. 

He did not put her between the other leaders, as 
I should have done, but on the outside. He said 
that he did it so that she could worry but one of 
the other horses, and would have room for her 
tantrums. Well, having made the change, he 
started his team, when, lo! Sally became as 
steady as any of the older horses. She seemed 
proud and happy. She arched her neck, bent 
forward her delicate ears, kept step with the 
other leaders, or rather tried to keep a little in ad- 
vance of them. No more trouble for John. His 
plowing now was like play. Was it a sudden 
freak of the colt's that she would get over? No: 
next morning she was put in the same place — on 
the lead, and worked there as well as any horse 
could work all day. John says that Sally is the 
finest leader he ever drew rein upon. But she 
won't work at the wheel. 

Mr. S. in our church is just like Sally; put him 
on the lead, and he will do wonders. But if the 
minister or any or all the rest get up some plan 
without consulting him, and don't make him 
chairman of the committee, he won't work worth 
a cent. And worse than that, he will find fault 
with the plan, and do all that he can to hinder it. 



THAT COLT SALLY. 1 49 

He thinks that, like Napoleon, he is a born 
leader, and lead he must, or he will balk. 

Nearly every church has men in it like Mr. S., 
and they give their ministers and their brethren a 
great deal of trouble. A church team can't all 
be leaders. It can't have three leaders to two 
wheelers, like our gang-plow team. We need a 
few wise men to plan, and to go ahead. But 
most of us have to be patient workers. And the 
Christian who is willing to work anywhere, and 
do anything, is a treasure. He is like the thor- 
oughly trained farm-horse — such as our old Kitty. 
She is good on the lead or at the wheel, good on 
the farm or on the road, good in the carriage or 
under the saddle. 

I find among our young people not a few like 
our Sally. They want to begin life as she wanted 
to begin plowing — on the lead. Old folks are old 
fogies — fit only to be wheel-horses, while the 
young folks are too precociously smart to follow 
anybody. They expect the world to follow them. 
A story is told of one of these conceited juve- 
niles. Being asked what he intended to be when 
he grew up, he replied that he hadn't yet made 
up his mind whether he would be a millionaire or 



I50 C. E. B. 

President of the United States. If a President 
could have three terms, he rather thought he 
would prefer the Presidency. But if he could only 
have eight years in the White House, he believed 
he would go in for a pile of money. The money, 
however, he did not mean to make by plodding 
industry and close economy, as old Stephen Gi- 
rard and John Jacob Astor made theirs, but by 
some grand speculation. 

It is these foolishly ambitious young men that 
become defaulters and embezzlers. They are not 
willing to work and wait. They are in haste to 
be rich or to be in prominent places. They are 
tempted to seek success by dishonest means. 
And though ninety-nine in a hundred fail, go 
crazy, commit suicide, or live in poverty and dis- 
grace, the crowd presses on, and the same sad 
story is repeated. 



A LIVING STONE. 

This is one of the titles of Christ. (1 Peter ii. 
4.) It seems at the first glance absurd to speak 
of a living stone. But a little study will show us 



A LIVING STONE. I 5 I 

that there is great propriety and beauty in the 
figure. We want something to trust in that is 
firm. We want, as the foundation of our hope, 
a Rock that can not be moved. But we want 
more than this — we want sympathy, we want 
love, we want growth in grace. The apostle tells 
us by this bold metaphor that these wants are all 
met in Christ. In that Corner-stone there is a liv- 
ing heart. It beats for us. The Rock to which 
we flee for refuge is not cold and barren. It has 
flowers blooming upon it. It has fruit for the 
nourishment of the soul. It has tendrils to en- 
twine around the soul. It is not a fortress mere- 
ly, it is a home. 

Imagine a shipwrecked sailor, struggling with 
the waves, exhausted and just ready to sink be- 
neath them. He is far from the shore, and night 
is settling down upon the deep. Before him rises 
what seems to be a barren rock. He climbs 
upon it, thinking only of escape from death. He 
has little expectation of finding even water to 
quench his thirst. But as he drags himself out of 
the reach of the hungry waves, he sees a living 
spring. He drinks and is refreshed ; going far- 
ther, he finds trees loaded with fruit ; still farther 



152 C. E. B. 

he finds a palace. From it a king comes to wel- 
come him. He is placed in a royal chamber. 
As he rests on a bed of down, will it not seem to 
him wonderful that there should be such a rock 
in mid-ocean? Will he not say: ' 'Surely this 
that seemed so cold and barren, that I fled to 
merely to escape from death, is a living rock?" 
Such a rock is Christ ; a Savior full of grace and 
.truth. 

But Peter tells us that this living stone is a 
corner-stone. We are to build upon it. And its 
life will pervade the edifice; will make every 
stone in it lively ; that is warm, sympathetic, ac- 
tive, fruitful as well as firm. The result will be a 
spiritual house; a Church that is immovable as a 
mountain, yet beautiful and fragrant as a garden. 
What a grand ideal is this! If it could be fully 
realized, the world would be attracted to this 
spiritual house. It would find in it that rest 
which it has sought elsewhere in vain. 



THE GRAND CO-OPERATION. I 53 

THE GRAND CO-OPERATION. 

"All things work together for good to them 
that love God." (Rom. viii. 28.) What a state- 
ment! There is universal activity. Everything 
is working. ' This activity is harmonious; "all 
things work together." And the object of this 
grand co-operation is the good of those who love 
God. Let us visit some great factory. In the en- 
gine-room immense power is generated. But that 
power is under the control of the engineer. He 
directs it all to certain shafts or wheels. To them 
are geared other shafts and wheels; the whole 
building is full of machinery, all driven by the 
engine, all working together. And what is the re- 
sult? A roll of cloth or carpeting, nay, a nail, or 
even a pin. The power and machinery are di- 
rected to that one end. Everything in the build- 
ing is so arranged as to contribute to that one 
result. It seems a small thing for such a vast es- 
tablishment to turn out. But the world needs nails 
and pins. They are useful, though small. And 
the value of the factory is seen not only in the 
usefulness of the articles that it turns out, but 
in their number. It makes millions every day. 



154 c. E. B. 

Such a factory is the universe. It is energized by 
the power of God. He keeps all its great forces 
at work. He employs them all in the interests of 
his Church. It seems a small matter for suns 
and systems, for angels and archangels, to minis- 
ter to the heirs of salvation. It seems a result 
unworthy of such mighty agencies to polish a hu- 
man spirit for the skies. But when the work is 
accomplished, when the sanctified soul shines like 
the sun in the firmament, when, as ages roll on 
and all the material lights of creation have burned 
out, that soul shall continue to shine — then it will 
be seen that wisely did God so construct and gov- 
ern all things that they should work together for 
good to them that love him. 



TESTING THE SCAFFOLD. 

Helping to put on the cornice of our new 
farmhouse, I stepped upon a scaffold that had 
been strong enough to sustain two men the day 
before ; but in an instant it fell beneath my 
weight, and down I went some fourteen feet upon 



TESTING THE SCAFFOLD. 155 

the hard ground. The immediate sensations 
were not pleasant, and the soreness and stiffness 
that still linger are far from agreeable. I do not 
mention this fall as anything peculiar to Califor- 
nia, for ever since the days of Adam men have 
been falling in this world; but it suggested some 
reflections which I note down as I sit propped 
and pillowed waiting to get well again. 

I had no business to go on that scaffold be- 
cause it looked safe and had been so the day 
before. I ought to have tested it. If I had 
brought my weight to bear upon it before letting 
go my hold upon the building, I would have 
learned its weakness. It would have fallen, but 
I would not. There are men and women here 
and everywhere who act in regard to things spir- 
itual and eternal as foolishly as I did last Satur- 
day in regard to that scaffold. They know that 
erelong they must go outside the building — they 
must swing away from the body, from the world, 
from all that is now visible and tangible , swing 
away into the atmosphere of the spirit world. 
Will they find something to support them there? 
or will they go down, down, down as soon as 
they leave the body ? Will death be to them the 



I56 C. E. B. 

edge of a precipice, or the first plank of a bridge 
that reaches clear over the bottomless abyss? 
Everybody dreams that he has a safe and sure 
scaffolding for the soul on the outside of its pres- 
ent abode. One has pushed forward into the 
chilly darkness a theory of universal salvation. 
Another has built a scaffold of virtues and char- 
ities. He adds neW braces to it daily, and hopes 
that it is strong enough to support him over the 
dread abyss. The Christian believes that Jesus 
of Nazareth has come to his lowly home and 
placed there, within his mortal body, one end of 
a celestial arch, or of such a ladder as Jacob saw 
in his dream at Luz, the top reaching to heaven 
and angels passing up and down. 

Now, how shall we know beforehand whether 
any of these outside scaffolds will support us 
when heart and flesh fail? We must test them. 
But can we do so? Can we bring our weight to 
bear upon them before we let go our hold upon 
life? I think that we can. Let me illustrate. 
A man was dying with consumption. He knew 
that he could not live but a few days. He did 
not believe in Jesus. His hope was not derived 
from the gospel, hence he said to his physician 



TESTING THE SCAFFOLD. I 5/ 

and friends: "When the end is near, give me 
morphine. I don't want to be conscious while I 
am dying." He reached over to his scaffold and 
found that it would not bear his weight. Under 
the pressure of the fear of death, it sank beneath 
him. He should have known that it would not 
support him when he died. He did not dare to 
go over the precipice with his eyes wide open. 
The fact that he wanted to shut them proved 
that he had no faith in his theory of salvation. 
He tested his scaffold and it failed. Did he 
think that a dose of morphine would make it 
strong? 

An able lawyer whom I knew years ago pro- 
fessed to be an atheist. He believed that the 
soul went out like an extinguished lamp at death." 
He had an only son, the idol of his heart. This 
son sickened and died. The father was insane 
with grief. He would go into his chamber, and, 
falling prostrate on the floor, cry out: "O God, 
what does this mean? Why do you treat me 
so? Why have you taken my boy away? What 
have you done with him?" For weeks he suf- 
fered from paroxysms of grief, during which he 
was overheard howling heavenward such bitter 



I s 8 C. E. B. 

and blasphemous cries. After awhile these par- 
oxysms ceased, and he was as cold and sneering 
an atheist as before. That man tested his scaf- 
fold with the weight of his boy, and it utterly 
failed ; yet he went on, expecting to commit his 
own soul to it when he died. 

Every reader will be able to recall cases in 
which Christians have tested their scaffold in the 
severest trials of life and in the immediate pros- 
pect of death. I shall never forget the case of 
a young so'dier on the battle-field of Shiloh. He 
was shot through the breast, and as I helped the 
surgeon to probe and dress the wound, he said : 
i 'Chaplain, I know what Dr. F. means by that 
look. There is no hope for me. But I am not 
afraid to die. I went into the fight thinking I 
might be killed, and repeating, 'Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit.' He heard my prayer. I am 
waiting for him." That boy while yet in the 
body brought the weight of his spirit to bear 
upon the scaffold outside. It did not yield, and 
hence he knew it would not fail him when he 
died. 

I have seen Christians in sorrow as bitter as 
death itself, and I have heard them say: "The 



TESTING THE SCAFFOLD. I $9 

Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; bless- 
ed be the name of the Lord." Testing thus the 
sustaining power of the gospel when they were 
pushed out for the time beyond all human sup- 
port, when the whole weight of the spirit in its 
utter desolation was throw T n upon the promise of 
God, they know that those promises will be firm 
and steadfast in the dying hour. They hear the 
Savior saying: "Lo, I am with you alway;" 
" I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" " My 
grace is sufficient for you;" and they reply tri- 
umphantly: ' 'Though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for 
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they 
comfort me." 

But I have seen Christians whom the trials of 
life completely overwhelmed; who refused to 
accept even the consolations of the gospel when 
they were bereaved ; who cried out bitterly, ' ' It 
is cruel — I can not bear it;" who shrank from 
the rod when their religion required them to kiss 
it ; who looked up to the Smiter with bitterness 
of soul when they should have said, "It is the 
Lord. He doeth all things well." They are 
testing the hopes of their souls at such times as 



l6o C. E. B. 

these, and, if the anchor drags with only the 
strain of bereavement upon it, can they expect 
it to hold when death tries it to the utmost ? 

In such trials the nominal Christian is not test- 
ing the gospel, but his own faith in it. The gos- 
pel is an adamantine arch reaching from the low- 
liest believer's heart to the throne of God. But if 
the heart and the arch are not cemented together 
by true and living faith, there is no salvation. 
A man may be near to Christ, may hear his 
voice, may touch the hem of his garment and 
imagine that he is a true disciple, yet be de- 
ceived. If we would have full assurance, the 
hope that is an anchor to the soul, we must cling 
to Christ. We must take him, living or dying, 
to be our all and in all. Whoever does this will 
find his earthly trials tests of Christ's sustaining 
power, which will prepare him to die in peace. 



"AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE." 

This is one of the definitions of faith in the 
eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Moses lived and 



"as seeing him who is invisible." 161 

acted just as if he saw God. That was what 
made him a moral hero. We need in our day 
this same faith, and it is all that we need. If we 
could look up and see our Creator on his throne 
controlling all forces and events, holding in his 
hands cords that are fastened upon all human 
hearts so that he can turn them as he wills — if 
we could see Christ, our Savior, in the midst of 
the throne as a lamb that had been slain, plead- 
ing for us, would not this vision of power and 
love scatter all our doubts and fears? Would it 
not give us assurance of our own salvation, and 
of the safety and triumph of the Church? Could 
we ever be troubled, even for a moment, amid 
the fiercest rage of men or devils while we be- 
held that throne in the heavens, and looked upon 
the face of that pleading, yet mighty Savior? 
But we know that the throne is there, though we 
can not see it. We know that he who sits upon 
it is our reconciled Father in Christ. We know 
that he has promised to make all things work to- 
gether for good to them that love him. We know 
that Christ is there as our glorified Redeemer, 
and that he is able to save unto the uttermost all 
them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 



l62 C. E. B. 

liveth to make intercession for them. Knowing 
these things, having God's word for them, should 
we not feel and act as if we saw them ? That 
would be walking by faith. That is both our 
privilege and our duty. 

Does not this divine definition make ihe whole 
matter very clear and simple? People say, "Oh, 
if I had more faith.' ' Why don't you have it? 
Is there, can there be, any doubt as to the facts 
in the case? Are they not as real as if you saw 
them with your eyes? And if as real, should 
they not be as operative ? The old adage, ' * see- 
ing is believing," implies that mere corporeal vis- 
ion is the only basis of confidence. But it is not 
so. Our eyes often deceive us ; and there are 
many things that we believe in fully and firmly, 
though we have never seen them. 

How shall we cultivate this faith? How shall 
we accustom ourselves to act as seeing the invis- 
ible? There is but one way: Study the facts as 
God states them. Meditate upon them. Real- 
ize them. Get the mind and the heart full of 
them. Our souls have eyes that can see God. 
Our souls have ears that can hear God. Faith is 
the soul's vision of God. When I find my faith 



THRESHING. 1 63 

wavering, I go to the Bible. I take some one of 
the great facts it reveals, and fix my thoughts 
upon it. I invoke the imagination to make me a 
picture of it. I gaze upon that picture persist- 
ently and prayerfully. I say to myself: Yes, it 
is so ! Yes, Christ is there. I see him. I hear 
him. Now he lifts up for me those hands that 
were nailed on the cross. Look, my soul, at the 
marks of the nails. Look at the thorn-scars on 
his brow. Look, keep looking. Listen, keep 
listening. Ask God to open more fully the soul's 
eyes, to make more acute the soul's sense of hear- 
ing. Thus by earnest and prayerful study of 
these wondrous facts they become to us as ob- 
jects of sight, and we learn to feel and to act as 
if we were ever in the visible presence of our 
Creator and Redeemer. 



THRESHING. 

Paul says that "tribulation worketh patience, 
and patience experience, and experience hope." 
(Rom. v. 3.) Now, tribulation is literally thresh- 



1 64 c, E. B. 

ing. The tribulum was the sledge that the Ro- 
mans used to drive over the sheaves to beat and 
tear the grain from the straw and chaff. It was a 
rough process, but a necessary and effective one. 
Like it is the discipline by which God delivers his 
children from the evil that is in the world and in 
their own hearts, and prepares them to glorify 
and to enjoy him. Hence we are told "whom 
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." 

There are two stacks in a field. The thresher 
passes by one of them. It is hay. No heads of 
wheat there. If he. should run it through his ma- 
chine he would only change the hay to straw. 
He goes to the other stack, sets his machine, ap- 
plies his power, tears the stack up with his derrick 
forks, and pitches it into the cylinder; the iron 
teeth rend it ; the fragments are carried on where 
a fan drives the wind fiercely over them, tossing 
them out into the air. But there is something in 
that stack which the teeth can not rend, nor the 
wind blow away. As the operation that seems 
so cruel and destructive goes on, hard, plump, 
golden grains of wheat come dropping into the 
sacks. They are garnered for home consumption, 
or may be shipped to feed the hungry in foreign 



THRESHING. l6$ 

lands. The haystack is valuable for certain pur- 
poses, but it is not worth threshing. It has noth- 
ing in it fitted for the markets of the world. 
But the wheat is so firm and hard, such a crystal- 
lization of vegetable matter, that it can be kept 
thousands of years. Grains taken from the wrap- 
pings of an Egyptain mummy have been planted, 
and they grew. 

When, then, we behold a man who seems to 
have no trials, we are tempted to think that there 
is nothing in him worth threshing — that all his ex- 
cellence is of the earth — is like the grass and flow- 
ers. If there were in that man germs which 
might develop into spiritual life and bear fruit 
unto immortality, the Great Thresher would put 
him under the discipline of his providence. He 
would apply to him the rough tribidum, that he 
might beat out of him all his folly, blow away all 
his imperfections, thus preparing him for present 
usefulness and for eternal life. 

Tribulation, like the threshing of grain, will not 
bring anything out of a man if there is nothing in 
him. Some people are not made wiser and better 
by the trials of life. They are only threshed into 
chaff which the wind driveth away. But God's 



1 66 C. E. B. 

discipline is unlike ordinary threshing in this — it 
not only brings out what there is of good in the 
true believer, but it strengthens and increases the 
good. It not only proves that through divine 
grace we are patient, but it "worketh patience." 
In connection with the trial of our faith ' 'he giv- 
eth more grace." 

Then welcome be the tribulum of our heavenly 
Father. By it we are not only proved and puri- 
fied, but aided in the development of our spiritual 
life. "Blessed is the man that endureth tempta- 
tion, for when he is tried he shall receive the 
crown of life. " 



THE TWO BRIDGES. 

The Bible says that "by the deeds of the law 
shall no flesh be justified in his sight." And 
again, "Christ is the end of the law for righteous- 
ness for every one that believeth." These two 
passages bring before me two scenes that may il- 
lustrate their meaning : 

I was returning home once in the early spring. 
As I approached the river on whose opposite 






THE TWO BRIDGES. \6j 

bank that home stood, I saw that it was a swollen 
torrent full of floating ice. No boat could cross 
it. But I was not troubled ; for I did not have to 
depend on a boat. I knew that there was a 
staunch bridge on stone abutments and piers. I 
saw, as I rode down the mountain-side, that the 
bridge was standing firm above the fury of the 
freshet. I said to myself: "All right, I will be 
home in an hour." But as I drew nearer, I saw 
that the stream had cut away the embankment 
between me and the bridge. There rushed and 
roared a current of mad water, tossing huge 
ice-cakes into the air, and upon each other, in 
wild confusion. The current that swept around 
the abutment of the bridge was as impassable as 
the river itself. How useless that bridge when I 
could not reach it! How it mocked my hopes 
and longings, as I stood on the brink of the bro- 
ken embankment and gazed upon it ! The bridge 
was all right; the trouble was that I could not get 
to it. 

Like that bridge is the law of God. If we could 
obey it, we would be saved by it. The Holy 
One could not condemn any one who kept his 
holy law. But we can not keep it ; we can not 



1 68 C. E. B. 

even begin to. Between us and the abutment of 
that bridge there rolls the torrent of depravity. 
Sin has broken through the embankment of inno- 
cency that connected us with the bridge of 
obedience. Our souls are deluged with evil 
thoughts, unholy imaginations, impure desires, 
rebellious passions. We are powerless to arrest 
this torrent, or to cross over, and begin with 
angelic purity to be holy as God is holy. The 
law is perfect. It is just and good. It can save 
the sinless, but it can not atone for sin. By lov- 
ing obedience the unfallen can secure the favor of 
God. But the fallen can not begin to obey it. 
He can not of himself think the first pure thought, 
feel the first pure desire, send heavenward the 
first pure aspiration. When I hear men talk 
about doing right, and thus making sure of 
heaven, I think of that day when I stood by the 
torrent that roared between me and the bridge 
and fear that they are mocked as I was. 

Again, some years later, I was traveling in a 
land of swamps. I took a new road that ran in 
the direction that I wished to go, and congratu- 
lated myself that I would soon reach my destina- 
tion. Just as the sun was setting I came to an 



THE TWO BRIDGES. 1 69 

immense swamp. I could see the tufts of rank 
grass, and the dark oozy waters. But there was 
a bridge over the swamp. I drove upon it for 
nearly a mile, when suddenly it ended. Before 
me was a pi ! e of lumber, and beside it were the 
tools of the workmen. The bridge was not fin- 
ished. The solid ground was many rods away. 
The swamp was as impassable as if it had been a 
deep river. I had to turn about, no easy matter 
on that narrow bridge, and go back in the gather- 
ing darkness and try to find a better way. 

Such is the experience of many a man who has 
trusted in himself that he was righteous. He has 
gone on for years, hoping that his was indeed the 
way. But the sun is going down, and the shad- 
ows of life's evening time begin to gather over 
him. Conscience wakes up, and shows him how 
far he comes short — how imperfect is his best 
obedience, how self-incrusted and sin-stained is 
his morality, and that without Christ's righteous- 
ness to complete and crown his own he must 
perish. Happy is he who learns where his own 
way ends soon enough to turn and seek the new 
and living way. 



I/O C. E. B. 

WHAT AND HOW. 

Our Savior uttered two commands in regard to 
hearing: "Take heed what ye hear" (Mark iv. 
24), and "Take heed how ye hear" (Luke viii. 
18). Both are emphatic and imperative. We 
have no right to listen to a blasphemer, or to a 
sophistical teacher of error. Though we may not 
accept anything that he says, yet his words will 
fasten themselves in our memories, like burrs that 
cling to our clothing, and give a great deal of an- 
noyance. Satan will have, in the recollection of 
those blasphemies, or cavils, an artillery of evil 
within us which he will not fail to turn against 
the truth. Let me illustrate the insidious peril of 
hearing what is false or vile : I found, in traveling, 
years ago, a family living in a cabin on the edge 
of a swamp. They were feeble and sallow. 
They all had the chills. I said to them, "Do you 
drink this water?" "Oh no," they replied, "we 
know better than that. We go away yonder to 
the hillside, where there is a spring, and get our 
water, both for drinking and cooking." "Yes," 
I replied, "and you ought to move your cabin to 
the hill and live there. You won't drink this 



WHAT AND HOW. IJl 

water, but you live in the air that it poisons. 
You breathe the miasma, awake and asleep. It 
enters your system as effectually and fatally as if 
you drank it" Like those dwellers by the 
swamp are they who are careless as to what they 
hear; who think it does them no harm as long as 
they don't believe it. Ere they are aware their 
souls are poisoned. Our only safety is in dwell- 
ing in an atmosphere of purity. 

But the how is as important as the what. 
Truth may be heard so that it shall be as profit- 
less as seed sown on a rock. The command, 
"Take heed how ye hear," is given in connection 
with the parable of the sower — a parable that 
ought to be carefully studied in all our congrega- 
tions. A besetting sin of the day is careless 
hearing. Even Christians, when they return from 
the house of God, can not repeat the text, much 
less the leading thoughts of the sermon. It is 
sad to think how much good seed is sown that 
never germinates; how little preaching accom- 
plishes because there is so little prayerful and de- 
vout hearing. But are not the preachers respon- 
sible, in part, for this state of things? If their 
sermons were more textual and expository they 



172 C. E. B. 

would fasten themselves in the memory by the 
law of association. I remember such sermons 
now that I heard in boyhood. I wish we had 
more of them nowadays. 



WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? 

I plant on an acre of ground less than a hun- 
dred pounds of seed. I cut from it a crop of 
grass which, when thoroughly dried, weighs two 
tons. Here are 3,900 pounds more of solid 
matter than I deposited in the soil. Where did it 
come from? A little silex and lime and phos- 
phorus have been taken from the ground. But 
the part of my crop which makes food for man or 
for beast was not in the earth. It has come from 
the atmosphere. It is the carbon and nitrogen 
that are poisonous when inhaled, but are nutritious 
when eaten in the form of grain or fruit. During 
the long process of vegetable growth, every plant 
is a laboratory. In it slowly, steadily, surely, 
wonderfully, the hurtful elements are extracted 
from the atmosphere and converted into food. 
The rain and the sunshine, moisture, heat and 



WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? I73 

light, are the agents employed in this process. 
But the great Chemist, who superintends the 
work, is God himself. 

I never watch a field of wheat but I think of 
the miracle of the manna in the wilderness, and 
of that of the five loaves that fed five thousand 
when Christ blessed and brake. Here is an 
operation of divine wisdom and power in my 
behalf as great and as marvelous. Here is equal 
proof of creative energy. To say that the germ, 
the end of a dry kernel which I plant, makes 
the blade, the ear, and the full corn in the ear, 
is absurd. How can it make anything? It 
has no life. It is only a point that God has 
chosen to begin to work at. It is only used to 
mark the spot when he sets up his laboratory. 
He says to the farmer: Wherever you put a seed 
I will build a workshop, and construct for you a 
plant or a tree. I only want you to bury the 
seed, for I am "the invisible God. ,, I work un- 
seen. I work in silence and darkness. But by 
my quiet, underground operations I clothe the 
earth with beauty, and feed the millions who dwell 
upon it. 

These thoughts about God have been throb- 



174 c - E - B - 

bing in my brain as I have gone over fields ripe for 
the harvest. Every full head of wheat and bar- 
ley was bending as if in worship, and, nodding in 
the breeze, it seemed to say, Behold what a mira- 
cle of power and goodness I am ! You could not 
have made me. All the boasted science of the 
world could not have made me. God alone could 
have gathered my constituent elements out of the 
air and shaped them into symmetrical grains, each 
inclosed in a shell to protect it until the reaper 
and thresher are ready for it. 

I think that Christians ought to talk less about 
nature and laws, and more about God. They 
ought to see the Creator in his works, not merely 
as the great original maker of all things out of 
nothing, but as making beautiful and wonderful 
things all around us all the while. We ought to 
teach our children, not how plants grow, for they 
don't do any such thing, but how God makes 
them. They are developed from seeds, or bulbs, 
or offshoots, by his own hand. He is as really 
present in the process as he was when the sun 
was lighted, or when the foundations of the earth 
were laid. I want to protest, from my rural 
home, against the prevalent atheism of the da}'; 



THE GRUMBLER. 175 

not the atheism of Huxley or Darwin, but of 
Christian men and women. They seem to think 
it unscientific to talk about God, except in 
church, or on the Sabbath. They do not honor 
him and enjoy him as they might, if they accus- 
tomed themselves to see him in all things. 



THE GRUMBLER. 

Isn't there somebody in your church that is al- 
ways talking about the coldness of the brethren, 
the divisions that abound, the low state of piety, 
the conformity to the world, etc. ; in other words, 
who is continually confessing other people's sins 
instead of his own ? My word for it, that man is 
the cause of much of the evil that he complains 
of, and magnifies it by his complaining. (Those 
who choose can put she and her in this last 
sentence instead of "he" and "his.") Tell such 
grumblers the fable of the "Bell Clapper." The 
bell in which it was hung was cracked, and the 
clapper was always complaining of its sad fate in 
being hung in such a bell. A good many unso- 
phisticated people pitied the clapper, and con- 



176 C. E. B. 

doled with its sad lot. At length the spirit of 
Diogenes, the old cynic, who could not endure 
shams of any kind, came along. He heard of the 
clapper's complaint, and said: "Before you make 
any more fuss about the bell, remember two 
things. First, you cracked it, and, second, no- 
body would know that it was cracked if you didn't 
tell them." The moral is obvious, but those who 
need to ponder it will be the last to see it. 



WAITING ALL NIGHT. 

It was announced on Friday of last week that 
the Government would redeem $50,000 of green- 
backs in silver, commencing at ten o'clock Satur- 
day. Here was an opportunity to make a clear 
profit of $2,500. For, while greenbacks were 
worth only ninety cents in gold, silver half-dollars 
were worth ninety-five cents on the dollar. Every 
money-changer in the city wanted as much as he 
could get of this $2,500. So, long before dark, 
on Friday, a crowd gathered before the doors of 
the custom-house, expecting to wait there until 
the doors opened at ten A. M. next day. The 



WAITING ALL NIGHT. 1 77 

policemen in attendance made this crowd fall into 
line, so that the first comers should be first served. 
And there they stood all the evening — all night — 
all the early morning — fourteen or fifteen weary 
hours. There they stood, joking, pushing, grum- 
bling ; sleepy, but with no place to sleep ; weary, 
but with no chance to rest. There they stood with 
their greenbacks in their pockets, waiting to ex- 
change them for silver, and make five cents on 
the dollar. When the doors were opened Satur- 
day morning the rush was fearful. Many had 
their clothes torn from their backs. Some were 
pushed down and trampled on. Not a few, who 
had waited in line all night, were crowded out by 
their stronger competitors when the column be- 
gan to move, and failed to get to the payer's 
counter in time. At five minutes after eleven the 
whole amount of silver was paid out, and scores 
went away disappointed. 

How those men, who waited in the street all 
night to make a few hundred dollars, would ridi- 
cule an all-night prayer-meeting. 

12 



178 C. E. B. 

"THE AGE OF REASON." 

This is the title of the book by which Thomas 
Paine was going to convict the Bible of falsehood 
and folly, and to drive it out of print. I had not 
seen a copy of it for years. But the other day, 
to my surprise, I found one in the Bible House in 
San Francisco. Some customer who was prepar- 
ing a lecture on infidelity wanted to examine it, 
and that copy was ordered from Boston for him. 
There it lay, a lonely thing, in the midst of thou- 
sands of Bibles; Bibles large and small, Bibles 
plainly bound and richly bound, Bibles in many 
different languages. Yes, the book that Paine 
proposed to destroy was never so widely circu- 
lated, so generally read, and so influential as it is 
to-day ; while the book which he wrote is almost 
out of print. I thought if the spirit of Paine could 
have been in that copy of his "Age of Reason," 
as it lay in the Bible House, he would be mortified 
and ashamed. He would see that he had been 
bombarding a rock with a wisp of straw. 
Paine's criticisms are, many of them, ingenious, 
and a few of them are not easily explained. But, 
doubtless, this is our fault rather than the Bible's 



"the age of reason. ' 179 

There are spots, as we call them, on the sun. 
But they are not of necessity inperfections. 

I have no sympathy with the commentators 
who try to explain everything in the Bible. I 
believe that there are mysteries in it on purpose 
to try our faith. If an inspired apostle found 
some things in it "hard to be understood* ' (2 
Peter iii. 16), is it any wonder that we do ? A 
conceited skeptic lately called it 

"the book of blunders." 
He tried to show that it was full of errors histori- 
cal, errors philosophical, errors rhetorical, errors 
of all sorts and sizes and colors. "Well," 
thought I, as I read the various counts of his in- 
dictment, "it is a great wonder that such a blun- 
dering book has not been scorned and scouted 
out of the world long ago." Such men overdo 
their work, and their efforts react in favor of the 
Bible. Sensible, practical men say, "There are, 
as everybody knows, a great many excellent 
things in this book, and it has done a great deal 
of good; why, then, try to pick petty flaws in it?" 
If I can't understand all its miracles and myster- 
ies, yet I can understand enough to make me wise 



ISO C. E. B. 

unto salvation, and the more I do His will, the 
more I shall "know of the doctrine/ ' 



THE FRESCO AND THE MIRROR. 

In a palace in the city of Rome is a splendid 
fresco, by Guido, called the "Aurora." It is in 
the ceiling of a lofty dome. To study it is very 
trying to the eyes, and dizzying to the brain. 
For the relief of visitors a large mirror has been 
placed near the floor directly under the fresco. 
Before this mirror the visitor can sit, and study 
the fresco at his ease, and can get a better view 
of it than by gazing at the ceiling itself. Reading 
of this fresco and mirror made me think of the state- 
ment in 2 Corinthians iii. 18: "We all, with open 
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," 
etc. The knowledge of God is the most interest- 
ing and valuable that we can attain to. How 
much grander and better to understand the Crea- 
tor than to understand the noblest of his works ! 
Men study the sun and the stars with great pa- 
tience and enthusiasm. If they could turn their 



THE FRESCO AND THE MIRROR. l8l 

telescopes upon the throne in heaven, and upon 
him who sits upon it, "like unto a jasper and a 
sardine stone ;" if they could pierce the emerald 
rainbow and study the features of the King of 
kings, would not every created orb be neglected 
in order to gaze upon the uncreated glory? But 
such gazing, were it possible, would be weari- 
some. Hence God has placed a mirror in our 
hands. He has given us an image of himself in 
the narrative of our Savior's life on earth. With 
the New Testament, we may sit down in our 
homes and study God. Gazing upon it with 
patient and prayerful interest we may know as 
much of Jehovah as we need to know, as much 
as it is possible for us now to comprehend. We 
may behold in our glass what angels and arch- 
angels behold in heaven. Our divine book is as 
full and faithful an "image of the invisible" as 
mortal eyes can see. How great is the goodness 
of God in giving us this mirror of himself! 

But there is another statement in the latter part 
of the verse (2 Corinthians iii. 18) about the mirror. 
They who gaze into it are changed by it. The 
glory which they see glorifies them; studying 
what Christ revealed of God, they become Christ- 



152 C. E. B. 

like; and, of course, God-like. The condition 
stated is, that we must behold "with open face." 
We must not go to the Bible with preconceived 
theories, or to find in it a reflection of ourselves. 
But we must go to find in it, and to receive from 
it, the pure truth— just what God has revealed. 
In this process the heart of the student is like the 
plate or card of the photographer. It must be 
clean. Its surface must be receptive. And then 
it must be uncovered and exposed freely to the 
light coming from the image, and to that light 
alone. He who studies God's word in this way — 
who opens his heart to it — will find that it prints 
itself not only upon his memory, but upon his 
affections; upon his character, until he becomes 
a living epistle ; an illustrated edition of the gos- 
pel, until his face shines as did that of Moses 
when he came down from the mount, and men 
take knowledge of him that he has been with 
Jesus. 



DON'T SWITCH OFF. 

As I passed a train of cars on the Central Pa- 
cific, the other day, I saw written on several of 



don't switch off. 183 

them these words: "Perishable; don't switch off." 
These cars were loaded with fruit for Chicago. 
If they went through promptly the fruit would 
get into market in good order, and sell for good 
prices. But if too long on the way it would rot, 
and be worthless. The fear of the shipper was 
that in making up trains these cars would be 
switched upon some siding and left there until his 
fruit was ruined. I went into a Sabbath-school 
the next day. I saw a large infant class, and a 
very small Bible class. I asked, Where are the 
boys and girls that w r ere in the infant class ten 
years ago? Are they teachers? A few of them 
are, and a few attend the adult Bible class which 
the pastor teaches. But the majority of them, 
when fifteen or sixteen, concluded that they were 
too old to go to Sabbath-school. They switched 
off. Do these graduates of the school, as they 
consider themselves, come regularly to church? 
No, only occasionally. I am sorry to say that 
they have not only outgrown the Sabbath-school, 
but all Christian influences. They are trying to 
have what they call a good time. They go to 
places of amusement on the Sabbath. They are 
falling into bad habits. Many of them, I fear, 



184 C. E. B. 

will go to destruction. And I thought of the re- 
quest written on those fruit-cars: "Perishable; 
don't switch off." I wished that those words 
could be written on the heart of every Sabbath- 
scholar, and on the hearts of parents and teachers 
too. The age when boys begin to think that 
they are men is the most critical of their lives. 
If they get switched off then they are exposed to 
temptations which few are able to resist. One of 
the great Sabbath-school problems of the day is: 
How can we keep the older scholars? It is easy 
to get little children to come, and to interest 
them. But it is not so easy to get the young 
men and maidens who are beginning to think that 
they are wiser than their parents. I know of but 
two ways that will be likely to prove successful. 
First and best : Try to have all the boys and girls 
converted. If they become Christians before 
they are twelve years old, they will, of course, 
want to stay in the Sabbath-school either as 
scholars or teachers as long as they can. The 
second way is to have all the adult Christians, and 
all other adults that can be interested in the study 
of the Bible, attend the school. Where there are 
a number of classes composed of grown-up peo- 



THE WIND AND THE FIRE. 1 85 

pie, the young folks feel that the Sabbath-school 
is not a place for children merely — that they are 
not expected to outgrow it. If fathers and 
mothers complain that their children are getting 
tilled of Sabbath-school, and think that they have 
gone long enough, let them go with their chil- 
dren, study their lessons with them, and try in 
this way to keep them interested. 



THE WIND AND THE FIRE. 

We were trying to burn the stubble on an 
eighty-acre field the other day. We kindled fires 
all along the northern side, but it was hard to 
keep them burning. The flames crept southward 
so slowly that we were tempted to give up in 
despair. But just then the sea-breeze came. It 
caught those languid flames upon its wings, and 
bore them rapidly across the field. The fire ran 
furiously now, and our only anxiety was in regard 
to stopping it when we should want to. All the 
combustibles were in the field before the wind 
came; the fire was kindled and making some prog- 



1 86 C. E. B. 

ress. But what would have required hours with- 
out the wind, was accomplished in a few minutes 
with the wind. It at once intensified the confla- 
gration a hundred-fold. So will it be when the 
Spirit is poured out upon our churches. Oh, it 
was wonderful to see those feeble flames, that 
crept slowly over the ground, mount up into the 
air, and rush like fiery chariots before the wind ! 
And far more wonderful will it be to behold the 
new life in our churches — the living energy in 
what now seem to be mere formal instrumentali- 
ties, when the Sayior breathes upon them, saying, 
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost." 

The flames that were fanned by the wind in our 
field to-day increased its force by rarifying the air. 
Thus, as the fire became hotter, the breeze be- 
came stronger. Each acted and reacted upon the 
other. And so it is with our hearts and "the 
heavenly wind." The more they glow with love 
the more fervent and believing are our prayers, 
and these prayers bring down upon us still greater 
effusions of the Spirit. So, if there is a Pente- 
costal kindling, why should it not burn on, gain- 
ing fresh force as it advances, like a prairie fire, 
until all the churches are ablaze ? 



THE NAIL IN THE FOOT. 1 87 

If we had kindled our fire at only one point on 
the north side of our stubble-field the wind would 
have carried across a narrow line of flame and but 
a small part of the field would have been burned. 
But, expecting the wind, we kindled fires a few 
yards apart all along that side, and when the 
wind came it soon united those fires in one broad 
sheet of flame which swept over the ground like 
an army in battle array. This is what we want in 
the Church just now — preparation for the coming 
of the Holy Spirit all along the line — every minis- 
ter, every congregation, every Christian, prepared 
and expectant, waiting and praying. Then when 
the power from on high is given, it will not glow 
and burn in only one place, or in a few places, but 
all over the land. The revival will be general. 
It will move onward with a broad and steady 
flame. 



TIE NAIL IN THE FOOT. 

It was a valuable horse. Some one had left a 
nail in a board. He stepped on it. It penetrated 
his foot and broke off. He was a little lame, but 



1 85 C. E. B. 

no disease was developed in the region of the 
wound. Yet that nail in the foot resulted in 
death. On the third day after the accident, lock- 
jaw appeared. In the part of the body farthest 
from the place of injury, there was a violent and 
fatal derangement. Why? In each living crea- 
ture there is woven a net-work of nerves. They 
connect each part with all the rest. By them an 
injury in any member is at once telegraphed to 
the rest. And such is the peculiarity of the nerv- 
ous system that often there seem to be closer 
sympathy through it between parts that are re- 
mote than those between parts that are contigu- 
ous. Here the nail in one of the hind feet mani- 
fested itself in the jaw of the horse. With such a 
net-work in the body it is not safe to injure any 
part expecting that it will alone suffer. The in- 
jury may be felt most where it would seem prob- 
able that it would be felt least, or not at all. 

Paul represents the Church as a body of which 
the individual believers are members. And in 
this spiritual body also there are nerves. Hence, 
if one member suffer, all suffer. An injury to the 
humblest believer, or a sin committed by him, 
may be felt in the most distant part of the body. 



1 'embryo christians." 189 

How important, then, that each believer try to be 
pure, not only for his own sake, but for that of 
others. 



"EMBRYO CHRISTIANS." 

A Doctor of Divinity, on this coast, has dis- 
covered a new species of Christians. I quote 
above the name by which he calls them. He 
first ventilated the discovery in a funeral dis- 
course. The deceased was an honest, energetic, 
public-spirited, benevolent, and, above all, rich 
man. He never made a profession of religion. 
He seldom went to church. He did nothing in 
all his life to honor Christ, or to manifest faith in 
him. But notwithstanding this utter indifference 
to Christianity, he must be complimented with 
some kind of Christian character. He is, there- 
fore, declared to have been an undeveloped Chris- 
tian. The germ was there. It slumbered while 
he lived, but death waked it up. Death made 
it germinate and grow. Death was the hour 
of spiritual birth. Such was the idea presented. 
How comforting to careless, worldly men! 



I9O C. E. B. 

Only be good citizens. Only make money. 
Don't do anything grossly immoral. Be a kind 
neighbor and a pleasant friend. Then some mar 
of God will stand before your coffin, and say that 
you were as truly a Christian as any of those good 
people who make such a parade of their piety ; 
who go regularly to church, to prayer-meetings 
and to communion. The only difference between 
them and you is in the degree of development. 
You did not find a congenial soil and climate for 
the growth of your piety in this world. You pre- 
ferred to make money. But now, since you can 
not do that in the spirit-world, the dormant buds 
of your spirit-life will burst into leaf and blossom, 
and you will become a full-blown Christian. The 
idea of embryo Christians is not patented or copy- 
righted. So if other preachers wish to use it on 
funeral occasions they are at liberty to do so — if 
their conscience will let them. 



BEAUTY IN COMMON THINGS. 

I have just been out in the corn-field. How 
splendidly every stalk is shaped and polished and 



BEAUTY IN COMMON THINGS. I9I 

colored. How graceful the form and curve of 
every leaf. How grandly the tassels waw in the 
breeze like the plumes of a vast army in battle ar- 
ray. How delicate the silk as it comes out from 
the forming ear. How finely modeled and pro- 
portioned the ear itself. How delicately hued 
the husk and the kernels. There is an all-day 
study for a painter in a single stalk of corn. No 
human skill could imitate it. And yet how many 
millions God makes every season. Does he 
make them merely to feed us or our swine, and 
to furnish our distilleries with corn? I can not 
believe it. I read in that graceful growth God's 
love of beauty. I see in it a revelation of his de- 
sire to cultivate and refine our spirits while he 
feeds us. A wise and loving mother tries to 
make home attractive to her children. She not 
only puts food on the table for them, but she 
puts it on the best dishes she can get. She 
covers the table with snow-white linen, and 
adorns it with flowers. She wants to teach her 
boys and girls that they are not mere animals to 
be fed and sheltered, but that they have a higher 
nature. She would cultivate in them pure tastes 
and holy affections. And she learned this from 



I92 C. E. B. 

our heavenly Father. He seeks to win our 
hearts t6 himself, and to purify them by making 
the common things around us so graceful and so 
beautiful. Study the vines, the trees, the grain, 
the vegetables even. Watch the young animals 
at play. See how much there is in form and col- 
oring and motion to interest you. How the 
thought of utility is lost, as you gaze, in the emo- 
tion of beauty, and you will feel, you can not help 
it, that your Creator is not only the wisest of all 
beings, but that he is the most loving and most 
worthy to be loved. He is ever touching the 
familiar things about us until they glow with 
beauty, and thus is saying: "Let me give you a 
heart-growth as graceful as that of the corn or 
the vines. I delight in the graces of the spirit 
more than in these external graces. I work 
around you to show how I can and will work 
within you." 



SHADOWS. 

"Oh, dear, I wish the light would shine into 
this closet," said a little fellow who was looking 



SHADOWS. I93 

for a toy that had rolled away; "why don't the 
sun shine around corners? Why is there always 
a shadow behind anything that is lighted up?" 
The boy's questions suggest other and deeper 
ones. Why do shadows fall upon our hearts? 
Why can none of us walk in the light all the way 
of our earthly pilgrimage? Shadows are often 
welcome. When we journey on a summer day, 
how glad we are to find shade trees along the 
road, to have clouds come between us and the 
burning sun! If light went around corners, if 
nothing could intercept its beams, in what a terri- 
ble glare we would have to live and toil! We 
would hate the sun if we found it impossible to 
hide from him. Our Father knows that we need 
shade as well as sunshine, and he has so arranged 
the laws of nature that they shall go together ; 
that whatever is shined on shall cast a shadow ; 
that where there is a bright there shall also be a 
dark side. Thus not only is our comfort pro- 
moted, but beauty results from the play of light 
and shade. The world owes much that is grand- 
est and loveliest in its scenery to the fact that 
sunbeams go only in straight lines. 

But our Father sees that our spirits need shad- 
13 



194 c. E. B. 

ows as well as our bodies ; that the dark side is 
as valuable in our soul culture as the bright side. 
He shines upon us from his word and by his 
Spirit. But always a shade goes with the shin- 
ing. He who finds nothing in the sunniest hours 
of life to stir his deepest sensibilities, to start the 
tears in his eyes, has but a shallow nature, or 
takes only superficial views of that wondrously 
solemn thing, a life of probation for a life that 
shall never end. Christian, when shadows creep 
coldly over ■ your spirit, feel not that God has 
ceased to shine ; that he no longer reigns and no 
longer loves you ; but remember that as the earth 
needs night as well as day, as vegetation needs 
clouds as well as sunshine, you need hours of 
darkness and sadness; you need the mellowing 
influences of sorrow in the ripening of your char- 
acter for its work on earth and for its home in 
heaven. 



"WITH QUIETNESS." 

Crossing San Francisco Bay, this morning, I 
watched the noiseless movement of the powerful 



"with quietness." 195 

engine with great interest. There is a strange 
fascination in the quiet working of such forces. 
The immense pistons, perfectly polished and 
oiled, seemed to go up and down in the cylinders 
with great ease, and yet to them were attached 
the cranks and levers that turned the wheels and 
propelled the boat. I asked, as I stood there, 
Why is this power so quiet in its operations? 
And I found these answers : First, the force gen- 
erated in the boilers is sufficient for the work that 
is to be done by it. If the engine was placed in 
a boat too heavy for it, it would have to carry too 
much steam, and there would be a constant strain 
upon it. Second, the force is regulated in its ap- 
plication to the work. Only a certain amount of 
steam is admitted into the cylinders at a time, 
and at uniform intervals. Indeed, in this respect 
the engine is made so that it is self-regulating. 
Third, every part of the engine where there could 
be any friction is kept constantly oiled. 

Now, Paul exhorts Christians to work with 
quietness. Not to be quiet, but to be busy with- 
out bustling; to be active and earnest without 
making any fuss about it. It seems very difficult 
for some good people to obey this exhortation, 



I96 C. E. B. 

or even to understand it. In their minds work 
and worry are inseparable. Such persons may 
learn a lesson from the engine. Let them not 
try to do too much ; let them be systematic in 
their efforts, and, above all, let them keep the 
machinery well oiled; let them cultivate that 
charity which suffereth long and is kind. The 
real workers for Christ are not always those that 
the world hears most about. There are thousands 
who, in humble spheres, are toiling quietly to do 
good. What they accomplish others will never 
know. Nay, they themselves will never know 
until the day when it shall be said to them: 
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world/ ' 



IN EARTHEN VESSELS. 

Men put their treasures in iron safes, but God 
puts his in "earthen vessels." (2 Corinthians iv. 
7.) He knows that he can take care of it even 
in such frail depositories, and he wants to fix the 
attention of men upon the treasure itself. He 



IN EARTHEN VESSELS. 1 97 

would not have their thoughts diverted from the 
jewel by the casket. Yet how little appreciation 
there is in the churches, to-day, of this divine 
plan in regard to the gospel. How severely the 
earthen vessels are criticised. How anxious men 
are to get their gospel in a vessel of a finer mold 
and higher polish than that of their neighbors. 
Indeed, there are congregations, not a few, who 
seem to care very little about the treasure itself, 
if they can only get a vessel of graceful form, and 
highly ornamented. Eloquent preachers are in 
great demand. Pious preachers, whose gifts are 
those of the Holy Spirit only, are not wanted. 
Some one must be secured who can draw a crowd, 
who can tickle itching ears, who can get people 
to rent pews just as they rent opera-boxes. The 
tendency of this is to secularize the Church — to 
"run" it as a human institution — ignoring the fact 
that its real power is of God ; that its true success 
and usefulness can come only from the indwelling 
of the Holy Ghost. 

Now, because the vessels are earthen it does 
not follow that they must be rude in shape, un- 
polished, or, perhaps, even cracked. An earthen 
vessel may be graceful, it may please the eye, it 



I98 C. E. B. 

may have a "ring" that is musical, and yet it may 
contain a treasure so rich in value that you can 
not look at or think of anything else. Such min- 
isters of the gospel there are, men of ripest cul- 
ture and rarest eloquence, yet so full of Christ 
that the hearer forgets everything but him. Even 
the beauty of the vessel seems only to make the 
treasure more attractive, to draw all eyes to it in- 
stead of diverting any from it. A minister can 
not be too thoroughly educated if he consecrates 
all his culture to Christ. He can not seek too 
earnestly the graces of oratory if by them he 
would the better persuade men to come to Christ. 
But when he polishes the vessel only because a 
vicious taste demands it; when he cultivates rhe- 
torical elegance because the churches bid high for 
it, forgetting that "the excellency of the power 
is of God," he is faithless to his high calling. 

"In earthen vessels !" Is it any wonder that 
ministers of the gospel are not perfect? Is it 
any wonder that a critical world often despises 
them ? Is it any wonder that cold-hearted Chris- 
tians fail to "esteem them very highly in love for 
their works' sake?" But if the earthen vessel has 
the treasure in it, God will honor it though men 






FINDING A SPRING. 



I 99 



do not. Be patient then, nay, be joyful, ye hum- 
ble ministers of Jesus. He who hath chosen you 
will make the treasure enrich your own souls, even 
if others refuse to receive it from you. And, 
hereafter, though you have gone forth weeping, 
you shall surely come again rejoicing, bringing 
your sheaves with you. 



FINDING A SPRING. 

I remember reading this story years ago. A 
farmer who had dug a well in his stock-yard, and 
was obliged to spend an hour a day pumping 
water for his stock, thought, one morning: "I 
have been plodding here for months. I am 
weary of this monotonous toil. I will take a holi- 
day. I will climb these hills beyond my farm. 
I will look over the landscape, and let my spirit 
rise for a few hours above its narrow sphere of 
thought and care." So he left his plow in the 
furrow, and went out to ramble over the wooded 
slopes and rocky summits that skirted his arable 
land. Those slopes and summits were in the sur- 



200 C. E. B. 

vey and deed, but he had considered them of 
little value, and never visited them. 

After expending hours in exploring this rugged 
region for mere pastime and rest, he turned 
homeward. On the last hillside, as he paused to 
look down upon his farm, he saw that the leaves 
were wet in a little ravine. He carelessly pushed 
them away with his foot, and lo ! a tiny spring 
appeared. He saw at once that it was small be- 
cause it was choked up. He opened it as well as 
he could with his hands, opened it with the boy- 
ish instinct to see how much faster it would flow. 
While thus engaged, he suddenly thought: "Why 
this spring is just above my cattle-yard! I have 
spent days in digging a well there and I spend an 
hour every day in pumping water, while God has 
placed a spring here from which I can easily take 
a stream down to my yard. What a fool I have 
been to toil so in the valley for what was waiting 
to come to me from the hills ! This day, when I 
thought merely to rest, when I climbed up here 
merely to get a breath of fresher air, has been 
worth more than weeks of hard work. It will 
save me a month of pumping every year." 

And the story went on to say that this man had 



FINDING A SPRING. 201 

been a moralist. He had been trying to satisfy 
his conscience by industry and honesty. Yet he 
had felt spiritually weary and dissatisfied. It was 
hard to do right even according to his own low 
standard. As he sat that day by the fountain on 
the hillside he recalled what he had learned in 
childhood of "the Fountain filled with blood." 
He said: "Why should I work so hard to get up 
a poor righteousness of my own, when Christ 
offers me his so freely?" He found there, as he 
thought and knelt in the ravine on the hillside, 
not only living water for his cattle, but for his own 
soul. 

Now, I need not dwell on the lesson of this old 
story. We are all tempted to bend over our daily 
tasks, to try to satisfy our consciences and our 
hearts by anxious ploddings. We forget, even 
those of us who knew it, that there is above us, 
in the hills where Christ has gone, a river of the 
water of life ; that it will flow freely into every 
heart that is open to receive it; that its mission is 
to refresh the weary, and to wash away sin. 
Whoever will clear away the dead leaves and rub- 
bish with which he has tried to cover and drive 
back this living water; whoever will penitently 



202 C. E. B. 

and lovingly welcome it, will find it will do for 
him what all his own efforts can not do. It will 
not only give him peace of conscience, but joy in 
the Holy Ghost. 

The well-spring of God's grace is not beneath, 
but above us. Its blessings are not to be toiled 
for, but received. When they asked Christ what 
they must do "to work the works of God," he 
replied: "This is the work of God, that ye be- 
lieve on him whom he hath sent." Faith is not 
working, but drinking; kneeling at the Fountain, 
and quenching the sin-thirst. When we give up 
our hard and toilsome way of trying to be happy ; 
when we take God's easy way ; when we are will- 
ing to receive what he so freely gives — then the 
great problem of life is solved. Then we need 
not thirst any more, or go to the well to draw, 
for there is within us "a well of water springing 
up into everlasting life. ,> 



THE PLOWED FIELD. 

As I stood upon a hill to-day and saw the plow- 
men, in all directions, turning the young grain 



THE PLOWED FIELD. 2C>3 

under, and making the green fields black, I was 
reminded of a story that I read years ago. An 
emigrant family, when Illinois was the far West, 
went out upon the prairies, many miles beyond 
the line of civilization. The husband built his 
cabin amid the flowers. He did not plow near 
it, for his wife said nature had given them a more 
beautiful lawn than any they could secure by cul- 
tivation. But a few rods distant he broke up the 
sod of the prairie, and prepared a field for plant- 
ing. His wife laughingly said that he was spoil- 
ing a splendid flower-garden. But he knew that 
they could not live on flowers. His ground be- 
ing ready, the farmer went to the nearest settle- 
ment for seed. Late in the afternoon of the day 
when he was expected back, his wife and children 
went out into their flowery lawn, hoping to see 
him. But, instead of the well-known wagon, 
they beheld along the eastern horizon a strange 
light. It ran along the ground, and shot up into 
the air, and the wife knew at once what it meant — 
the prairie was on fire! The grass was dry 
enough to burn, and whatever was still green was 
dried by the intense heat long before the flames 
reached it. So on rushed the all-devouring fire. 



204 C. E. B. 

She knew that in a few moments it would blacken 
their lawn, and turn their cabin to ashes. There 
was no safety there for her and the babes. What 
could she do ? She thought of the plowed field. 
It was black and rough, but there was nothing on 
it for the fire to feed upon. She ran there, and 
lay down upon the furrows with her little ones, 
while the fire passed all around them, leaving the 
flowery prairie a scene of utter desolation. On 
the plowed field, hungry and cold, but safe, the 
emigrant found them next day. His wife, with 
tears of mingled sorrow and joy, said: "I see 
now how foolish I was. If you had plowed 
around our cabin it would have been saved. But 
here, where I said you had spoiled a part of my 
splendid garden, your plowshare made a place of 
refuge for us. I feel like kissing this rough, black 
ground, for to it we owe our lives." 

Many of my readers are like that wife. They 
love those things that are bright and gay, like 
prairie flowers. They do not love serious thought, 
repentance for sin and a suffering Savior. They 
don't want to be disturbed in the enjoyment of 
what they call pleasure. They dread a revival of 
religion in the community, for it will interrupt the 



THE PLOWED FIELD. 20$ 

gayeties of the season ; it will trouble their con- 
sciences ; it will stir up their Christian friends to 
talk with them about their souls. But do not 
my hearers know that things which are beautiful 
are not always safe, and that, in sacrificing them, 
we often secure a higher good? What though 
the solemn interests that the minister presses 
upon your attention seeoi to you like plowing un- 
der all that charms you in life, and leaving your 
earthly lot as black to the eye, and as rough to 
the feet, as that field, yet, if the fire is abroad, 
and it feeds upon the grass and flowers you love — 
if nothing can escape it but the plowed field of 
repentance, and of faith in him ''who gave his 
back to the smiters," is it not better for us to flee 
to Christ than to perish in our sins ? The plowed 
field, that looks so uninviting now, will soon be 
covered with a better verdure than that which is 
turned under by the plow. And so the joys of 
the Christian will be found far more satisfying 
than those of the impenitent. Yet, were the new 
life to be always like walking on the rough ridges, 
and in the deep furrows, without anything to 
gladden the eye, better far to go footsore and 
weary in the way that is safe, than to be over- 



206 C. E. B. 



taken by the resistless and quenchless fire while 
playing among flowers. 



THE FLAW IN THE BOLT. 

A workman in a machine shop in Ohio was 
making a patent mower., He had just forged a 
bolt to fasten one end of a rod, when he dis- 
covered a slight flaw in the iron. "No matter," 
he said, "it will not be discovered. It may last 
for a good while, and when it breaks the owner of 
the machine will only have to buy a new one." 
That mower was shipped to California. The pur- 
chaser had a field of wild oats just ready to cut. 
If not mowed immediately the grain would all 
shell out, and the hay would be only straw. 
These wild oats are one of our most valuable hay 
crops, but must be cut just at the right time. 
The mower was started in the field, and worked 
beautifully for an hour. Then suddenly that bolt 
gave way. Before the machine could be stopped 
the rod it fastened was broken. "Too bad," said 
the farmer. "A flaw in the bolt. Well, there's 
half a day lost, for I must go to San Jose and get 



THE FLAW IN THE BOLT. 207 

another. " He drives to the hardware store; but 
no rod can be found to replace the broken one — 
none nearer than San Francisco. He telegraphs 
to San Francisco to have one sent by express. 
It comes at noon next day. Price of rod and bolt, 
express charges and telegram make quite a bill. 
Besides, nearly two days are lost, and the field of 
oats is damaged so that it is hardly worth cutting. 
All this annoyance and loss because a careless 
workman used a piece of iron with a flaw in it. 
He might have replaced it with a perfect bolt in 
ten minutes. He did not mean to subject a 
stranger to so much worry and cost, and would 
be very sorry, no doubt, if he knew the history 
of that bolt. But his carelessness was just as in- 
jurious and criminal as if he had deliberately 
planned all the possible results. When men 
know that certain consequences may follow from 
their not doing what they ought to do, or from 
their doing what they ought not to do, they are 
responsible for those consequences. We all see 
this readily in regard to material things. But do 
we remember, as we should, that our characters, 
our tempers, our lives are influencing others? 
That a flaw in them may not only grieve, but 






208 C. E. B. 

ruin an immortal soul? Suppose some one is 
watching you or me to determine whether Chris- 
tianity is a reality or a sham. Suppose we get 
angry at some trifle; suppose we are dishonest 
in some little thing. He says to himself: "If 
religion don't make people any better than that, 
I don't want it" We go into eternity. We 
stand before the great white throne. The books 
are opened. The history of all human lives is 
revealed. We see just where each has affected 
others. We see where bolt and bar have come 
together in the great complicated machinery of 
society. We see how a thoughtless act, an idle 
word, has blighted a human soul. It may be the 
soul of a stranger whom we met but once. It 
may be the soul of our child or of our dearest 
friend. How important then that we be faithful 
always — ' 'faithful in the least." Human lives are 
so woven together in a network of mutual in- 
fluence that our most careless look or tone may 
be the turning point of some soul's eternal des- 
tiny 



PETER AND PAUL. 20g 

PETER AND PAUL. 

I have been interested to-day in reading about 
the intercourse between these two apostles, and 
their estimate of each other. Naturally, they 
were not dissimilar. Both were earnest and im- 
pulsive. But how different their culture and 
manner of life had been! How different their 
calling to the apostleship and their training for its 
duties ! They were just the men to differ widely, 
and to be tempted to be jealous of each other. 
Yet, we find the scholarly Paul when he first goes 
to Jerusalem after his conversion seeks at once 
the house of the illiterate Peter, of Peter the 
fisherman, and stays with him fifteen days. (Gal. 
i. 1 8.) Nay, he tells us that he went to Jerusa- 
lem on purpose to see Peter. In the same epistle 
he tells us that Peter wrought effectually in the 
gospel of the circumcision, and yet goes on to say 
that he withstood him to the face because he was 
to be blamed. 

And Peter on his part writes of "our beloved 

brother Paul" (2 Peter iii. 15), and of the wisdom 

given unto him ; and then goes on to say of his 

epistles, that in them are things hard to be under- 

14 



2IO C. E. B. 

stood. It is evident that these men, though so 
dissimilar in many respects, yet highly appreci- 
ated each other. And we learn from them that 
good men may withstand each other to the face, 
and yet love each other; that honest differences 
of opinion are no bar to mutual esteem and affec- 
tion. We learn also that we can think highly of 
those whom we can not fully understand. I have 
no doubt that Peter was sorely puzzled by many 
things in Paul's letters. The doctrines presented 
by the great logician of the apostolic church were 
mysterious to the uncultured Galilean. But he 
did not reject them because he could not compre- 
hend them. He knew that Paul worote "accord- 
ing to the wisdom given him," and he would not 
limit inspiration to his own intellectual capacity. 
The friendship between these apostles should 
teach us to honor and love all true laborers for 
Christ, however dissimilar our tastes, training, 
culture and spheres of usefulness. 



A SLOPING CUTV 211 



A SLOPING CUT. 



A tyro in farm work attempted to mow a patch 
of mustard. He swung his scythe with all his 
might, keeping its blade at right angles to the 
tall, strong plants. He worked hard and accom- 
plished little. An experienced farmer said to 
him: "Let me show you how." He took the 
scythe, held it loosely in his hands, and swung it 
with an upward movement, so that it cut the 
plants, not at right angles, but with a long slope. 
The work was easy and rapid. The largest 
stalks, that it was hard to cut at all in the way 
that tyro tried, fell fast, and as it seemed almost 
with a touch, before the scythe when the old 
farmer swung it. "You see," he said, "the slop- 
ing cut is the easiest, and the straighter you 
whack at them the harder it is to bring them." 
As I listened to that lesson in mowing I thought 
there are other things in this world besides mus- 
tard plants for which the sloping cut is best. 
Many a young minister goes to work like that 
tyro. He swings his scythe with all his might at 
the sins and sinners around him. He thinks that 
his "cuts direct" must bring him down. But he 



212 C. E. 13. 

finds, to his surprise and chagrin, that his sturdy 
blows produce but little effect. He learns after 
awhile that the sloping cut is best. Our Savior 
met the caviler and the skeptic in this way. 
What a sloping cut was that when he asked the 
Pharisees about John the Baptist ! and that when 
he said to those who brought a guilty woman to 
him: "Let him that is without sin first cast a 
stone at her." In dealing with this wicked world 
we need a great deal of sanctified common-sense, 
of zeal according to knowledge. It is foolish to 
hammer on cold iron when we have the means of 
heating it. It is bad generalship to attack an 
enemy in front when you can outflank him. 



THE FERRY-BOAT. 

I was crossing a rapid stream, in a ferry-boat, 
some years ago. I noticed that as soon as we 
left the shore the ferry-man headed his boat, not 
for the opposite landing, but for a point nearly a 
mile above it ; and that he kept it headed so all 
the way across. I said to him, "Why don't you 
steer for the place that you want to go to?" "If 



THE FERRY-BOAT. 213 

I did," he replied, "we should land far below it. 
The current is working against us all the time, 
and, unless we work up the stream as well as 
over it, we shall not get straight over. In other 
words, we have to steer diagonally in order to go 
straight." 

And is it not so with all of us in our efforts to 
be just with our fellow-men — to give to each his 
due? We make these efforts while we are afloat 
on a swift and strong current. Depravity, with 
its abnormal development of selfishness, is press- 
ing against us all the while. The moment that 
we look at another, and try to feel and act rightly 
toward him, this current seizes our spirits, per- 
verts our judgment, excites our prejudices and 
passions, and almost unconsciously drifts us into 
injustice when we are trying to be just. How 
shall we resist this tendency of our fallen nature? 
We are to aim at more than justice. We are to 
"love our enemies; to do good to them that hate 
us." This is the gospel plan for overcoming the 
downward drift of depravity, and for enabling us, 
in spite of that drift, to "do justly." 



214 C. E. B. 

JOB AND PAUL. 

They were representative men: Job of the 
Patriarchal and Paul of the Christian Dispensation. 
Both were sensible and pious, and both were great 
sufferers ; yet how different their views of suffer- 
ing ! Job said, replying to the bitter taunt of his 
wife: ' 'Shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
and shall we not receive evil?" He believed in 
God's justice, and his impartiality. He saw that 
there was a great deal of evil in the world, and 
thought that he ought to be willing to take his 
share of it. The very fact that he had been so 
prosperous and highly favored was a reason why 
he ought to expect reverses ; what right had he, 
or any man, to claim as his all the good things of 
this life, while so many had only evil things? 
Job's question presents a thoughtful, common- 
sense idea of life and of the government of God. 
Many who have health and wealth see the sick 
and poor around them, and seem to imagine that 
they, the fortunate, and those unfortunates, com- 
pose two permanent classes. That while they 
are born to prosperity, the others are born to ad- 
versity, and hence they complain bitterly if they 



JOB AND PAUL. 215 

are afflicted. What right has he who has loaded 
them with good gifts to take any of those gifts 
away? But that is a narrow and foolish view of 
the matter. Looking at this world only, as men 
of the world do, they ought to expect to share in 
all the common experiences of humanity. They 
ought to see that the lives of men would prob- 
ably not be greatly unlike, on the whole; that 
the poor and the rich would probably change 
places now and then, and hence just because they 
themselves had been comparatively free from 
trouble hitherto, they should prepare for their 
portion of it, which is sure to come sooner or 
later. 

But Paul had clearer light on this subject than 
Job, and hence he said, 4 T take pleasure in in- 
firmities, in reproaches, in distresses, and in per- 
secution, for Christ's sake." If he had been in 
Job's place he would not have submitted merely 
to the losses and the boils, saying, "The Lord 
gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be 
the name of the Lord." But sitting in the ashes, 
he would have sung hymns, praising God as he 
did in the dungeon at Philippi. What made the 
difference between these wise and good men? 



2l6 C. E. B. 

Paul had learned of Jesus the worth and glory of 
suffering. He had been taught by the Holy 
Spirit that "whom the Lord loveth he chasten- 
eth." He believed that "all things work together 
for good to them that love God." How sweet 
and blessed it is to get this gospel idea of evil ; to 
realize that in the case of the true believer it is 
evil but in name — that the trial or affliction, how- 
ever dark it seems, is sent in love. It comes 
from the hand of him who is always seeking to 
make us wiser and better; who sits beside us as 
a refiner and purifier of silver, and who, when he 
heaps the burning coals upon us until we cry out 
in anguish, is only separating the dross from that 
which is precious in his sight, and which he 
would polish for the skies. To submit to dis- 
appointments and losses without murmuring is 
philosophical. To take pleasure in them is Chris- 
tian. If they are providential, and Providence 
means our heavenly Father, then we know that 
they are blessings in disguise. 



ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY. 2\J 

ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY. 

These are the conditions of success. Give a 
man power and a field in which to use it and he 
must accomplish something. He may not do 
and become all that he desires and dreams of, but 
his life can not be a failure. I never hear men 
complaining of the want of ability. The most 
unsuccessful think that they could do great things 
if they only had a chance. Somehow or other, 
something or somebody has always been in their 
way. Providence has hedged them in so that 
they could not carry out their plans. They knew 
just how to get rich, but they lacked opportunity. 

Sit down by one who thus complains and ask 
him to tell you the story of his life. Before he 
gets half through he will give you occasion to ask 
him, "Why didn't you do so at that time? Why 
didn't you stick to that piece of land and improve 
it, or to that business and develop it? Is not the 
present owner of that property rich ? Is not the 
man who took up the business you abandoned 
successful?" He will probably reply: "Yes, that 
was an opportunity; but I did not think so then. 
I saw it when it was too late." In telling his 



2l8 C. E. B. 

story he will probably say, of his own accord, 
half a dozen times, * 'If I had known how things 
were going to turn I might have done as well as 
Mr. A. That farm of his was offered to me. I 
knew that it was a good one and cheap, but I 
knew that it would require a great deal of hard 
work to get it cleared and fenced, to plant trees, 
vines, etc. , and to secure water for irrigation. I 
did not like to undertake it. I am sorry now that 
I didn't. It was one of my opportunities.' ' 

The truth is, God gives to all of us ability and 
opportunities enough to enable us to be moder- 
ately successful. If we fail, in ninety-five cases 
out of a hundred it is our own fault. We neg- 
lected to improve the talents with which our Cre- 
ator endowed us, or we failed to enter the door 
that he opened for us. A man can not expect 
that his whole life shall be made up of opportuni- 
ties ; that they will meet him at regular intervals 
as he goes on like milestones by the roadside. 
Usually he has one or two, and if he neglects 
them he is like a man who takes the wrong road 
where several meet. The further he goes the 
worse he fares. 

A man's opportunity usually has some relation 



ABILITY AND OPPORTUNITY. 2lg 

to his ability. It is an opening for a man of his 
talents and means. It is an opening for him to 
use what he has faithfully and to the utmost. It 
requires toil, self-denial and faith. If he says, "I 
want a better opportunity than that. I am 
worthy of a higher position than it offers;" or if 
he says, "I won't work as hard and economize as 
closely as that opportunity demands," he may, in 
after years, see the folly of his pride or indolence. 
There are young men all over the land who 
want to get rich, and yet they scorn such oppor- 
tunities as A. T. Stewart and Commodore Van- 
derbilt improved. They want to begin, not as 
those men did, at the bottom of the ladder, but 
half way up. They want somebody to give them 
a lift, or carry them in a balloon, so that they can 
avoid the early and arduous struggles of the ma- 
jority of those who have been successful. No 
wonder that such men fail, and then complain of 
Providence. Grumbling is usually a miserable 
expedient that people resort to to drown the re- 
proaches of conscience. They know that they 
have been foolish, but they try to persuade them- 
selves that they have been unfortunate. 



220 C. E. B. 



ROOTED IN LOVE. 



The most important thing about a plant is its 
root. If that is healthy, in a good soil and well 
watered, the plant will live and grow. Cut off all 
the top, and the root will send up sprouts to make 
a new one. But if the root is gnawed by gophers, 
or planted in a hard, dry soil, so that it withers 
and dies, the whole plant dies. Life starts at the 
root and works upward. In winter the sap from 
the trunk and branches descends into the root, 
and is there protected from frost until the warmth 
of spring lures it up again. The great art, then, of 
successful culture is in rooting well what we culti- 
vate. A great deal of the thought and time and 
toil of the good husbandman is given to the prep- 
aration and improvement of his soil. The best 
of all husbandmen understood this, and hence 
when he set his plants of righteousness in the 
earth he prepared for them a special — a celestial 
soil. He rooted them in love. Love, how rich 
and deep; how warm and mellow it is! How 
full of the moisture of sympathy ! A soul rooted 
in it must grow in grace. It must speedily com- 
prehend "the breadth and length and depth and 
height." (Ephesians iii. 18.) But though God 






DOUBLE PAY. 221 

has provided this wondrous soil for our souls to 
grow in, he will not keep them in it by force and 
against our will. We must choose and strive to 
be rooted in love. Thus only can we obey the 
command to grow in grace. Growth can be se- 
cured only by stimulating the underground life of 
a tree — by developing the inner hidden life of the 
believer. When we find ourselves spiritually 
barren, despondent, easily overcome by tempta- 
tion, we should at once examine the root. We 
shall probably find that we have left our first love 
— that we are out of the divine soil. And the 
cure is simple, radical. It is the prescription 
which Christ sent to the church of Ephesus: 
1 'Repent, and do the first works." (Revelation 
ii. 5.) When by faith we root our spirits in the 
love of God, we will find them budding and blos- 
soming and bringing forth fruit. 



DOUBLE PAY. 

Did you ever think, dear reader, how God pays 
his servants? Our Savior said (John iv. 36): 



222 C. E. B. 

"He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth 
fruit unto life eternal. " That "and" is note- 
worthy. It means that the laborer for Christ not 
only gets paid day by day for his work, but that 
he has an interest in the fruit he gathers. God 
rewards him just as if he worked for God only, 
and not for himself; and yet when he reaches 
heaven, he will find the harvest he helped to reap 
laid up for him. He will receive "fruit unto life 
eternal, " in addition to the peace and joy that 
were the present reward of his fidelity. The man 
who helps to build an earthly house is satisfied if 
he gets his pay, regularly, for his work. He does 
not expect to live in the house, even to be a guest 
in it. But God says, build for me, and I will pay 
you wages, and then, when the house is finished, it 
shall be yours forever. Will it not be an element 
of special interest and joy to find that our works 
on earth followed us to heaven ; that the cup of 
cold water which we gave, and found pleasure in 
giving here, secures us a reward also over there? 
Great, then, is the encouragement to work for 
Christ. His servants have promise of the life that 
now is, and of that which is to come. 



MIXED WITH FAITH. 223 

MIXED WITH FAITH. 

Paul says (Hebrews iv. 2) of certain persons, 
that "the word preached did not profit them, not 
being mixed with faith in them that heard it." 
This mixture of faith with the truth is very im- 
portant. Without faith the word is powerless. 
It has no tonic virtue. But add faith to it, make 
the solution strong, and it becomes the grandest 
of all medicines. 

As I was looking over a congregation last Sab- 
bath, and trying to interest them in Christ as the 
Divine Savior, I thought, How many of these 
people really believe what I say? To how many 
of them are these divine statements as idle tales? 
Oh if we could mix with this truth a real faith, 
how glorious the results would be! Christians 
would rejoice in the Lord, and sinners would re- 
pent and believe. 

How shall we secure a strong mixture of faith 
with truth? We must make the truth so plain 
that people will be compelled to understand it. 
We must repeat the same truth in all possible 
forms and with varied illustrations, so that it will 
seem to surround the hearer — to hem him in on 



224 c - E - B - 

every side until he can not possibly get away 
from it. But in addition to this,. we must pray 
earnestly for the Spirit of God to open the hearts 
of our hearers. It is sad to see how much preach- 
ing seems to be wasted. It is not weak intellect- 
ually, but fails in spiritual power — in what the old 
divines called unction. Why ? Because the truth 
is not mixed with faith in the soul of the preacher. 
He believes it, but he does not feel its full power. 
It does not thrill every nerve as it would if he 
realized it. When Jonathan Edwards preached 
upon the text: * 'Their foot shall slide in due 
time/' and the people were so impressed by the 
truth that they caught hold of the pew railings to 
keep from sliding, he felt deeply. He seemed to 
realize somewhat as God does the peril of the sin- 
ner. So with all truly great preachers in all ages. 
They study the word earnestly and prayerfully 
until it burns like a fire in their bones, and then, 
when they proclaim it, it startles their hearers 
like the cry of fire. 



THE STYLE OF THE BIBLE. 225 

THE STYLE OF THE BIBLE. 

If a youth whom you had known as illiterate 
should write you a letter in the purest French, 
you would conclude that he had been to Paris, or 
at least studied the language used there under a 
competent teacher. So when we open our Bibles 
and read such descriptions of heavenly and spirit- 
ual things as can be read nowhere else ; find the 
words wonderfully well chosen and full of mean- 
ing; find the writers telling about the grandest 
facts that imagination can conceive of, with simplic- 
ity and clearness, without morbid sentimentality 
or extravagance, we are convinced that they were 
inspired by One to whom such facts were familiar. 
Take, as an illustration, Paul's description of the 
resurrection of the body. (i Corinthians xv. 
40-58.) Read that passage with reference to the 
style merely, and must you not pronounce it 
superhuman? Turn to 2 Corinthians iv. 17. 
Ponder the description of the Christian's future 
blessedness : i ' A far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory.' ' As a combination of familiar 
words, so as to give us a sublime idea of heaven, 

is it not wonderful? Read the first chapter of 
*5 



226 C. E. B. 

Peter's First General Epistle. Remember that 
he was an illiterate fisherman, and where did he 
learn to pile up words upon words, and sentences 
upon sentences, so grandly? I can not forbear 
quoting a few verses: ' 'Blessed be the God and 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according 
to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorrupt- 
ible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re- 
served in heaven for you, who are kept by the 
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready 
to be revealed in the last time," etc., etc. I have 
never found in any of the classics, ancient or 
modern, any such writing. The style of the 
Bible is not human, but divine. Let me advise 
my readers to stop and ask themselves, when pe- 
rusing the Scriptures, how could mere men, un- 
aided, write so about things spiritual and divine? 
I doubt not they all believe that the Bible is the 
word of God, but it is well to realize vividly what 
we believe — to feel what we know — to see on the 
inspired page not merely the autograph of Paul, 
or of Peter, but of the Holy Spirit. 



THE TWO MANSIONS. 227 

THE TWO MANSIONS. 

I sat in a railway car near the family of a mil- 
lionaire. He is building a mansion about thirty 
miles from San Francisco, which is to exceed in 
magnificence anything on this coast. The esti- 
mated cost is, I think, a million dollars. The wife 
and daughter of the millionaire were talking with 
each other and with friends who sat beside them 
about this new home. They seemed to enjoy it 
by anticipation already. And yet they were 
troubled about it too. Some things in the plan 
of the architect did not just suit them. They 
feared delay on the part of the builders. The 
weather was unfavorable for some of the work 
that needed to be done right away, etc. 

As I listened to those people, whose means for 
gratifying every taste and whim were superabund- 
ant, I thought of my own home, of the improve- 
ments I would make in it if I had the means. I 
was tempted to envy them at first. Then I 
thought, my house here is not my true home. 
It is only the tent in which a traveler lodges for a 
while. I have a better house that is planned and 
being built for me ; yes, a better one than that of 



228 C. E. B. 

the millionaire. And so while they talked, I 
opened my pocket Testament and read: "In my 
Father's house are many mansions ... I 
go to prepare a place for you." Yes, thought I, 
the Son of God, who built the world, who kindled 
the sun and all the stars, is the Architect and 
the Builder of my home. It will be ready as soon 
as I need it. It will be perfect in all its propor- 
tions and arrangements, and I will live in it for- 
ever. That millionaire, if he lives to be an old 
man, can not enjoy his mansion many years. In 
a little while, perhaps before it is finished, the 
physician will be summoned there in haste. He 
will come and go with anxious face for a few days, 
and then the undertaker will be summoned; the 
mansion will be draped in mourning, and its 
owner will be carried out to a narrow house — a 
house of clay. How much better the prospects 
of the humblest Christian than those of the rich 
man who has no hope in Christ. Little matters 
it whether our home here be a hovel or a palace, 
if we are sure of a mansion which Christ has 
prepared for us and to which he himself will take 
us when we die. 



SHOD. 229 



SHOD. 



Reading the description in Ephesians of the 
equipment of the Christian warrior, I paused at 
the statement, "shod with the preparation of the 
gospel of peace." What does it mean? We 
have to march as well as fight. The First Napo- 
leon owed much of his military success to the celer- 
ity of his movements. But how shall we go over 
the hot deserts and amid the briers and thorns of 
this fallen world? Not barefoot, like Washing- 
ton's soldiers at Valley Forge. No, our Captain 
has provided sandals for his followers, sandals soft 
as an Indian moccasin, yet strong as the iron- 
bound shoe of the Swiss mountaineer. These 
sandals are "the preparation of the gospel of 
peace." In them we walk by faith. Our Savior 
had, while on earth, no royal chariot, or capari- 
soned steed. He rode only once, when he made 
his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On other oc- 
casions he walked, and often was weary. But 
love sustained him during his pilgrimage of toil and 
tears. That same love, and that alone, can sus- 
tain us. We must be shod with the gospel, or we 
will shrink from the hot sand and from the briers 



230 C. E. B. 

and thorns. Can the missionary go to Africa and 
live and labor amid the abominations of heathen- 
ism without the love of Christ in his heart? No 
more can we in our less self-denying sphere. 
"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall 
suffer persecution." In every way of Christian 
faithfulness, in every conflict with sin and Satan, 
our preparation is the gospel of peace. When 
we know the glad tidings that "being justified by 
faith we have peace with God through our Lord 
Jesus Christ," we are ready for any toil or trial of 
life. Shod with that assurance we can walk upon 
burning coals unharmed. The true Christian does 
not love war. He does not go out in full armor 
because he wants to fight. He goes shod with 
the gospel of peace ; with messages of love, on 
errands of mercy. But if he is opposed in his 
efforts to do good, if evil assails him, he will re- 
sist even unto blood. He will try to conquer his 
foes that he may win them to Christ. "Peace on 
earth, good will toward men," is his watchword 
even in the deadliest conflict. 






TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT THINGS. 23 I 

TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT THINGS 

Take two men into your young orchard, and 
probably one of them will admire the vigorous 
growth of the trees, while the other will call atten- 
tion to the few that look stunted, or worm-eaten, 
or sun-blighted. Take them into your house: 
the one will notice its conveniences; the other 
will see at once how it could be improved in many 
particulars — will tell you that you ought to have 
made the ceilings higher, the windows larger, etc. 
Let these men travel together: the former will 
enjoy the scenery; the latter will complain of the 
weather, of the cars, or of something else all the 
way. He persists in seeing and commenting 
upon whatever is disagreeable, and has no eyes 
for the things that are pleasant. These different 
ways of looking at things are partly constitutional, 
and partly the result of habit. Some people are 
born with cheerful temperaments. They always 
look on the bright side. They are sanguine, 
hopeful, enthusiastic by nature. Others inherit 
atrabilious and melancholy temperaments. But 
we can control even constitutional tendencies. 
We ought to cultivate a cheerful spirit. We 



232 C. E. B. 

ought to get out of life as much good and as little 
e*vil as possible. We ought to try to add all that 
we can to the happiness of those around us. 
The critical, fault-finding,cynical man can not en- 
joy himself as well as a man of an opposite spirit; 
for it is impossible that one should take pleasure 
in noticing defects, and in depreciating what 
others admire. And such a man mars the en- 
joyment of others. Wherever he goes he clouds 
the sunshine of the rest of the world. He is con- 
tinually saying to his fellow-men, "You have no 
right to be happy. Your trying to be so shows 
your ignorance. The world is all wrong. It is a 
world worthy only to be criticised and despised." 

God does not approve of this censorious spirit. 
He tells us to be content with such things as we 
have. And the principle of the command would 
lead us to try to make others contented also — to 
extend as far as we can the spirit of cheerfulness 
and hopefulness. 

I advise all my young readers to avoid the 
habit of fault-finding. Admire all that you can, 
enjoy all that you can. There is something 
beautiful in almost every person and thing around 
you. Try to see that rather than defects, and 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 233 

you will make your own life sunnier, besides re- 
flecting a good deal of sunshine upon the lives of 
others. 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT. 

I fear that the dearth of revivals is connected, 
to some extent, with a prevalent skepticism in 
regard to the personality of the Holy Spirit. 
How emphatically Christ uses the personal pro- 
noun when speaking of him. (Read John xiv. 
16, 17, 26; John xv. 26; John xvi. 7-14.) 

A good man said to me one day, "I believe in 
the Spirit of God, that he sends it upon us as a 
good influence, just as my spirit influences those 
with whom I associate. Is not this enough? 
Must I believe in the Spirit as a person?" I re- 
plied : ' 'You must believe just what the Bible 
teaches. By cherishing an idea of the Spirit 
different from what it reveals, you become a 
skeptic. Nay, you dishonor not only the Spirit 
who is sent, but the Father and the Son who sent 
him. Suppose you come to me, saying, *My 
child has fallen into a pit ; won't you lend me a 



234 c - E - B - 

rope to draw him out?' I seize the rope at once, 
and run to the pit. I put one end in your hand, 
tie the other around me, and go down into the 
pit, and bring up your child. I don't merely 
lend you that which may help you, but I go in 
person and save your child. Now, if you should 
go all about telling merely that I lent you a rope 
to draw your child out of a pit, would you be an 
honest man? Would you do me justice ?" Such 
is a rough illustration of the guilt of him who 
denies the personality of the Holy Spirit. 



THE TWO PARACLETES. 

Christ says to his disciples (John xiv. 16): "I 
will pray the Father, and he shall give you an- 
other Comforter, that he may abide with you for- 
ever. " He does not say a Comforter merely, but 
another Comforter — one who was to take his 
place and be to them what he had been. Hence, 
by studying the relation of Christ to his disciples 
while he was with them, we learn what the rela- 
tion of the Holy Spirit was to be to them after 
the day of Pentecost. But was Christ to be no 



THE TWO PARACLETES. 235 

longer their comforter? Did he propose to turn 
his disciples over to the care and guidance of the 
Spirit? Would he cease to be the Good Shep- 
herd after lie had laid down his life for the sheep ? 
The Greek word translated comforter here is 
parakletos, or, in an Anglicized form, paraclete. 
John uses the same word in his First Epistle (ii. 
i): "We have an advocate [original parakletos\ 
with the Father. " He who was our Comforter, 
or Paraclete, on the earth is so still, though in 
heaven, and though he has procured for us, as an 
additional Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Hence 
we have now two divine Paracletes, one with us 
on the earth, and one with the Father in heaven; 
in fullest sympathy with each other, both deeply 
interested in us, and ceaselessly active in our be- 
half. 

This is a most wonderful fact. Let us try to 
understand it. And first: What is the full mean- 
ing of that Greek word, parakletos, which John 
applies both to Christ and the Spirit, and which, 
in our version, is translated * "Comforter" in the 
Gospel, and ' 'Advocate" in the Epistle? It 
means literally "one called to be beside an- 
other." In ancient times those who were poor 



236 C. E. B. 

and friendless attached themselves to some man 
of power and influence. They were called his 
clients, and he was called their patron. If the 
client got into trouble of any kind the patron was 
bound to help him — to appear for him in court — 
to make the client's cause his own. The patron 
would say to his client or dependent: Don't be 
troubled, trust in me ; I will throw my influence 
over you as a shield. This relation of patron and 
client suggested to our Savior the application of 
the term paraclete to himself and the Holy 
Spirit ; hence he said in the beginning of this dis- 
course, ' 'Let not your heart be troubled. * * 
Believe in me," I am your friend, your protec- 
tor, your counselor, your comforter. I have 
come to stand beside you in all emergencies, and 
when I go away I will see that you have another, 
equally wise and loving, to take my place here, 
and I will stand up for you and represent you, 
and look after your interests in the court of 
heaven. 

What a comforter Christ was to his disciples. 
He uttered many hard sayings; he rebuked them 
for their unbelief; but he was so wise, so patient, 
so sympathetic, so unselfish, so prompt in his re- 






THE TWO PARACLETES. 237 

sponse to their prayers, so mighty to deliver 
them, that they learned to confide in him, to be- 
lieve that they could not fail in anything if he was 
with them. Such a teacher, such a helper, such 
a monitor, such a guide, such a friend and com- 
forter is the Holy Spirit to each one of us. We 
study the life of Jesus not only to learn what he 
was to his disciples, but what he is also to each of 
us. Now, if we believe in him, and what the 
Holy Spirit is to us, we are clients who have two 
powerful patrons, and who ought therefore to 
fear no evil. 

I have been thinking how to illustrate this rela- 
tion of two paracletes. I know that if we could 
realize it fully, we should have far greater 
strength and joy in the Lord than belongs to the 
average Christian of to-day. 

Let me suppose a man in California, who has a 
claim to a large estate, but has lost possession 
and clouded the title by his ignorance and folly. 
Besides, he is accused of crime, and cast into 
prison. There he lies helpless, friendless and in 
despair. But one comes to his|cell, and says: 
* 'Don't you want me to be your advocate? I 
have great skill in such cases, and know that if 



238 C. E. B. 

you confide in me I can not only get you out of 
jail, but secure you the title to and the possession 
of your estates." The prisoner replies: "Oh, sir, 
I have no money to pay you." "No matter; I 
will serve you without money and without price. 
Nay, I will advance all the money necessary to 
prosecute your suit. You need have no trouble 
about it. You have only to confide in me." 

The prisoner accepts that sympathizing offer, 
though it seems too good to be true. The advo- 
cate bails him out, goes into court and gets the 
indictment quashed, brings an ejectment suit and 
puts him in possession of his property, introduces 
him into the best society on the coast, gives him 
advice and help in managing his affairs, and 
comes to him every day and says, "What can I 
do for you?" If he finds that there is any diffi- 
culty or trouble, he will not rest until he has re- 
moved it. 

But one day he comes to his client and says: 
"I must go to Washington City. There are 
matters there affecting your title that I must look 
after. Your enemies are trying to get decisions 
against you in the Land Office and in the Su- 
preme Court." 






THE TWO PARACLETES. 239 

The man, who has learned to live in the light 
of his patron's countenance, cries sadly: "Oh, 
what shall I do ? My enemies here will assail me 
as soon as you are gone. I am neither wise nor 
strong enough to contend with them alone." 

"I know that," the patron replies, "and hence 
I have sent for my brother to come and take my 
place. He is an able lawyer. He will stay with 
you, advise you, help you, give you the influence 
of his name and position, as well as of his knowl- 
edge and skill. He and I will be in constant 
correspondence with each other, and together we 
will protect your interests fully. It is for your 
good that I go, and with me in Washington and 
my brother here, you may rest assured that all 
things will work together for your good." 

If such a case as this were possible ; if two men 
of legal skill, wealth and high position should de- 
vote themselves to the interests of one whose 
only claim upon them was his need of them, who 
could do nothing to compensate them for such 
fidelity, the world would wonder and admire. 
Yet how feebly it illustrates the great fact re- 
vealed in the gospel of the sinner's two Paracletes: 
of Christ, who appears for him in heaven ; and of 



24O C. E. B. 

the Holy Spirit, who abides with him on the 
earth. Can the imagination conceive of any pro- 
vision more perfect than this for the protection, 
guidance and comfort of believers? Well, then, 
may he say to his followers in all time, "Let not 
your heart be troubled." 

Now, I presume that every one of my readers 
believes in the intercession of Christ, and in the 
gift of the Holy Ghost. But how do we believe? 
Do we take these great facts into our hearts? 
Do we ponder them until our hearts burn within 
us? Do we feel such grateful love as we would 
if human friends did for us a tithe of what these 
divine friends have done and are doing? I do 
not know of any better preparation for a revival 
of religion than an earnest and prayerful study of 
the work of the two Paracletes in our behalf. 



SPIRITUAL FRIENDS AND FOES. 

Is there not in the Church, to-day, a good deal 
of skepticism in regard to our unseen allies and 
our unseen enemies? We need spiritual friends, 
for we have mighty and malignant spiritual 



SPIRITUAL FRIENDS AND FOES. 24I 

foes. We should cultivate faith in the Holy- 
Ghost and in the ministry of holy angels, for we 
are surrounded by the Devil and his angels, and 
we can not resist them alone. I am not surprised 
that one of the first assaults of error is upon the 
idea of a personal Devil. He himself suggests it 
It is one of his wiles. A cunning warrior always 
hides himself if he can. The attack of an am- 
bushed foe is more to be feared than in the open 
field. But he must be a most careless reader of 
the Bible, or an arrant skeptic in regard to its in- 
spiration, who doubts the existence of an evil 
spirit, the prince of the powers of darkness, who 
has under him a host of fallen angels that help 
him to tempt and destroy the human race. 

I have just been looking up the passages in the 
Bible on this subject for my own satisfaction. I 
find that "the Devil" is spoken of no less than 
twenty-eight times as a person, with the attributes 
of personality ascribed to him, such as speaking, 
tempting, going about, setting snares and wiles, 
contending with God's angels, etc. Satan is 
spoken of in the same way no less than thirty- 
seven times ; and in the book of Revelation we 

are twice told (Revelation xii. 9 ; xx. 2) that the 
16 



242 C. E. 13. 

Devil and Satan are the same. Then the inspired 
writers tell us of a spirit who is the prince of the 
power of the air, who is the prince of this world, 
who is the prince of the devils, etc. They also tell 
us of principalities and powers that oppose the 
truth ; of rulers of the darkness of this world who 
are not made of flesh and blood (Ephesians vi. 
12); of spiritual wickedness (marg. , wicked spirits) 
in high places. It is impossible to explain away 
these repeated and emphatic statements. It is no 
vague inborn tendency, or misty principle of evil, 
that we have to contend with, but a living and 
powerful tempter, who is at the head of a large 
and disciplined army. He is a general with the 
experience of thousands of years. His soldiers 
are all veterans in the warfare against the truth. 
They are full of subtlety. They have power 
almost angelic. They have access to our hearts 
at all hours, yet we see them not. No merely 
human defenses will protect us. We must ask 
God to send his holy angels to camp round about 
us. (Psalms xxxiv. 7.) The more fully we real- 
ize what the Bible teaches in regard to evil 
spirits, the less will we be inclined to trust in our 
own strength, the more will we be led to seek for 



A DESIRE TO DEPART. 243 

help from above. It is this sense of weakness, 
and of dependence on God, that the Church now 
needs; and a study of the pictures Inspiration 
gives of the inyisible forces arrayed against us 
may discourage us from trying either to be good 
or to do good without the Holy Spirit. 



A DESIRE TO DEPART. 

Paul had it. There are times when all Chris- 
tians feel as if they would like to go away from 
this world of sin and sorrow. They are weary 
and long for rest. But is it right to cherish such 
feelings? As long as God wants us here should 
we not stay cheerfully? Is not the willingness to 
die before our appointed time, evidence rather of 
a morbid spirit than of a spirit ripe for heaven? 
The heavenly mind is the mind in harmony with 
the will of God. If he should send an angel to 
live in Ethiopia for a hundred years, that angel 
would be happy there. He would have heaven 
in his heart there. He would not want to return 
to his place in the celestial choir one moment 
earlier than Jehovah's appointed time. 



244 c - E - B - 

There are many reasons why the Christian 
should resist this longing to depart ; why, in his 
periods of highest spirituality and consecration, 
he should rather desire to remain in this taber- 
nacle, though in it he groans and is burdened. 
There is a great work to be done for Christ in 
this world, and how few there are to do it. Even 
the youngest and feeblest has duties and respon- 
sibilities. The removal of every true believer 
weakens some local church. There is a vacant 
seat in the sanctuary and in the prayer-meeting. 
There is one less to plead for and encourage the 
minister. One less to visit the sick and to teach 
in the Sabbath-school. 

A soldier, marching with his comrades through 
a hostile land, loves his home and longs for it 
But would it be right for him to seek for a dis 
charge while he is able to march and fight ? Does 
not loyalty to his country and to his fellow-sol- 
diers prompt him to resist the homesickness of 
the heart, and to press on until the victory is 
won? The discharge of a single soldier tends, in 
many ways, to weaken and discourage an army in 
the field. Because the burden is heavy and the 
bearers are few, should we shirk from carrying 



A DESIRE TO DEPART. 245 

our part ? Nay, let us rather ask to be spared as 
long as possible to the Church militant. Let us, 
"for our brethren and companions , sake," desire 
to stay and toil and suffer with them. 

Again, a desire to depart may, very properly, 
be checked by the fear that we are not meet for 
the inheritance of the saints in light. God keeps 
us here to sanctify us. We are not to be made 
holy by death, but during our lives. Our trials 
are for this purpose. Our work for Christ, that 
often seems so wearisome and hard, is to devel- 
op our Christian characters, and to polish our 
spirits for the skies. Are we sure that this proc- 
ess of preparation is complete? If not, then let 
us not be impatient. Let us rather ask to stay 
and toil and suffer, if thereby we can be more 
fully prepared for our eternal home. The thought 
of going into a land so pure, where all are white- 
robed, where God shines, and there is not a 
shadow behind which to hide a weakness or a sin, 
this ought to make us pause. Better stay here 
to extreme old age, even if the years be full of 
pain and disappointment, than to hasten away be- 
fore the purifying work of the Refiner is complete. 

If the block of marble in the artist's studio was 



246 C. E. B. 

as full of nerves as these bodies of ours, it would 
shrink from the hammering and filing by which it 
is to become a statue that ages will admire. But 
the shaping and polishing of that block require 
time. It can not be hastened, and however the 
nerves might shrink and quiver, they must endure 
until the work is finished. The sculptor, who 
was asked why he worked so slowly, replied: "I 
work for immortality/ ' The divine Sculptor is 
fashioning our spirits for eternal life. Well may 
we wait when the time here, at the longest, is so 
short, and the hereafter is so long. 



A DESIRE TO DEPART, AGAIN. 

What I wrote on this subject several months 
ago has brought me a number of letters. I will 
notice but one of them this week : The writer says, 
"I believe that I am a Christian. I love the 
Bible. I love the Church. I love and trust in 
the Savior of sinners. I believe that he has pre- 
pared a home for me in heaven. I believe that 
when I die he will take me to himself. Yet 
this life is very sweet to me. I don't want 



A DESIRE TO DEPART, AGAIN. 247 

to die. I am persuaded that God can and will 
make me willing when the time comes. But 
I have no desire, no longing, to depart. On the 
contrary, I shrink from death. To send the 
spirit out from the body seems to me like send- 
ing one out of his house in midwinter to shiver 
unsheltered in the open air. Is it wrong to feel 
so? Does this shrinking show that I am not a 
Christian ?" 

It seems to me that the shrinking shows two 
things : First, that you have a good deal of vitali- 
ty. The instinctive love of life, of this mortal 
life, which God has implanted in us all for wise 
ends, is strong in you. Your hold upon the 
world has not been weakened, by sickness, disap- 
pointments and bereavements. Second, you have 
not studied earnestly what God has revealed in 
regard to the future life. You have not culti- 
vated that familiarity with it which we should ex- 
pect from one whose * 'conversation [citizenship] 
is in heaven." Now, instead of yielding to the 
shrinking from death, saying that you can not 
help it; or mourning over it as a cloud upon your 
hope of heaven, suppose that you begin to in- 
quire what kind of a place heaven is — what at- 



248 C. E. B. 

traction it has even for one whose love of life is as 
strong as yours — I think you will soon reach 
some conclusions that will not only clear your 
head, but also warm your heart. 

1. Going into the spirit- world is not like going 
out of doors. It is rather like turning from tent- 
life when the canvas has become rotten and the 
nights are cold, to enter a home that is firmly 
built, and that is filled with light and warmth. 
This, you know, is Paul's inspired account of the 
matter. He says, "We that are in this taber- 
nacle [tent] do groan .... not that 
we would be unclothed but clothed upon." And 
how clothed, i. e. , sheltered ? With ' 'a building 
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in- 
the heavens." The spirit will not shiver when it 
goes forth from the body. It will find itself in a 
spiritual climate — in a spiritual home — in the so- 
ciety of pure and loving spirits. 

2. Going into the spirit-world is not going 
into a state of lethargy and semi-consciousness. 
Death is often preceded by diseases that paralyze 
both body and mind. Hence it is hard for us to 
realize that it is a waking up and not a falling 
asleep. But one inspired statement of the apostle 



A DESIRE TO DEPART, AGAIN. 249 

settles that matter. He says: "Mortality is swal- 
lowed up of life." Our true life begins when we 
die. Again he speaks of the dead as "present 
with the Lord," as soon as they are "absent from 
the body." Christ is not a dreamer. He is the 
Ruler of the universe. He is the Head of the 
Church. Where he is, must be the center of in- 
telligence and of activity. In such a presence 
there can be no want of interest and excitement. 
The more you study this matter, the more 
strongly will your heart be drawn heavenward by 
the very intenseness of its vitality. As you love 
knowledge, as you love action, as you rejoice in 
seeing and sharing in great enterprises, you will 
long for the hour when you can be with Christ ; 
when you can watch, and perhaps help, in the 
administration of his glorious government over 
matter and mind. 

3. Going into the spirit-world is not going to 
be a stranger in a strange land. That world is 
full of people that you know, that you will be 
glad to see, and that will be glad to see you. 
Not only will you be delighted to meet Christian 
friends with whom you sang and prayed on the 
earth, and to meet Christ and thank him in per- 



250 C. E. B. 

son for his love ; but you will feel as if Adam and 
Noah, and Abraham and Moses, and Paul and 
John, and Luther and Knox, and Henry Martyn 
and George Whitefield, with hosts of others, that 
you have read of, are not strangers. You will 
want to see them, and they will all want to see 
you ; for every new arrival will be welcomed by 
all in heaven, as a babe is welcomed in a human 
home. 

4. Going into the spirit-world will not cut us off 
from all sympathy with the Church on earth and 
with the Christians that we love and labor with 
here. I believe that the saints, as well as the 
angels, are ministering spirits to the heirs of sal- 
vation. I believe that they see us, though we 
can not see them ; that they come to our hearts 
and homes with messages of love. They do not 
come rapping on tables, or "materialized" in 
closets. They come, as the Holy Spirit comes, 
into our hearts. Their influence upon us is so 
gentle and so subtile that we can hardly distin- 
guish it from the action of our own spirits. And 
yet it is as truly from above, as the visit of the 
angels to Abraham. Now, is there not something 
attractive in the thought, that with sanctified na- 



A DESIRE TO DEPART, AGAIN. 25 I 

tures, and the wisdom acquired in heaven, we 
will hover over our friends and kindred on the 
earth, help them to resist the tempter, strengthen 
and encourage them, be co-workers with the 
Holy Spirit in promoting their growth in grace ? 

5. May I not add that going into the spirit- 
world will not only enlarge our knowledge of God 
and our sphere of usefulness on the earth, but will 
perhaps open up to us another sphere in which 
we can work, and see glorious results? Paul 
says: "That unto the principalities and powers 
in heavenly places might be known by the church 
the manifold wisdom of God." Will not then 
every redeemed and glorified spirit be a witness 
and teacher of that new manifestation which the 
Deity gives of himself in the gospel ? And what 
mission could be grander than this — to unfold 
from our own experience fresh and fascinating 
views of their Creator to the highest intelligences 
in the universe ? 

I have not time or space to write of other 
things which this subject suggests: as freedom 
from sin, understanding the mysteries that have 
puzzled us here, rapid growth in the knowledge 
of God and in the likeness to him; but have I 



252 C. E. B. 

not written enough to convince my correspondent 
and all my readers that heaven would draw our 
hearts, with a wondrous magnetism, if we would 
study what God reveals of its employments and its 
joys? 

And now what is the conclusion of this whole 
matter? Not that we should so long for x>ur 
summons to heaven, be so homesick while God 
keeps us here, that we have no heart for the du- 
ties of life. On the contrary, we should be 
cheered and comforted amid our present toils and 
cares by the glorious hope that is set before us, 
and should strive so to finish the work the Master 
assigns to us here, that he shall administer unto 
us an abundant entrance into his everlasting king- 
dom. We should love this life, not for its own 
sake, but for the opportunity it gives us for lay- 
ing up treasures in heaven. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 

We rest our belief of this doctrine largely on 
proof-texts, such as John i. 1. But to me the 
most conclusive demonstration is in the miracles 






THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 253 

of our Savior — and even here it is not so much 
the thing done as the way in which it was done. 
The prophets wrought miracles. So did the 
apostles. But there was a radical difference be- 
tween theirs and those of Jesus. Let us take one 
of the earlier miracles in the gospel story as an il- 
lustration : 

The carpenter's son is sitting in a house in 
Capernaum, probably in his own house. He is 
preaching to those whom curiosity has gathered 
in. A paralytic is brought by four men; and as 
they can not get in by the door they climb up to 
the flat roof, and let the sick man down by ropes 
into the area or. court where Jesus sits. He 
pauses in his discourse, reads at a glance the 
hearts of those five men, the paralytic and his 
friends; sees also with his omniscient eyes the 
cause of the disease, viz.: sin; knows that he 
himself is obeying the law, and will endure 
its penalty for sinners; knows that this man 
has faith in him as the promised Messiah. 
Hence he says : Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 
No prayer to God in behalf of the paralytic. No 
appeal to anybody else as when Peter said : "In 
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and 



254 C. E. B. 

walk." (Acts iii. 6.) But in his own right, by 
his own inherent sovereignty, he pronounced ab- 
solution. Yes, that young man — not in the tem- 
ple but in a private house ; not after the offering 
up of sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood, but as 
an episode in his discourse — promptly, quietly, as 
if he was doing that which for him was an easy, 
every-day act, forgives sin. 

Now the pardoning power is the highest in all 
governments. Only the chief magistrate in any 
nation can forgive and set free a criminal under 
condemnation. And in the divine government 
God alone can forgive. So the Old Testament 
constantly declares. So all men in all ages have 
believed. When conscious of guilt the cry for 
pardon goes up to God. Hence the scribes, who 
heard these words spoken by one whom they re- 
garded as a mere man, were right in thinking Jesus 
guilty of blasphemy. Had he been a prophet 
merely, or an angel, had he been anybody but 
God, he would have been a blasphemer. Know- 
ing this, our Savior proceeds at once to prove his 
right to forgive sin, and the fact that he had for- 
given it, by healing the body that sin had para- 
lyzed. He did this, as he distinctly declares, to 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 255 

prove to them that he was not guilty of blas- 
phemy. He heals as promptly and with as much 
quiet self-consciousness as he forgives. No 
prayer, no incantation, no appeal, but a simple 
command, " Arise, and take up thy bed." 

This incident, given so briefly, and yet so 
graphically, in the inspired record, is no doubt 
authentic. Indeed, the evidence of its genuine- 
ness is on its very face. No man who made up 
such a story could tell it so plainly and calmly. 
He would be tempted to embellish it. Nor 
would a writer of fiction have made Jesus forgive 
the man's sins before he healed his palsy. He 
would have had prominent in his thought the ob- 
ject for which the man was brought, and the 
visible miracle that was wrought. He would not 
have felt, as the holy Savior did, that sin is the 
great malady; that to be delivered from sin is 
the great need ; that pardoning sin is the greatest 
of all miracles. 

Now observe, Jesus of Nazareth, sitting in his 
house in Capernaum, assumed the authority and 
prerogative of God. He claimed to exercise in 
his own name and right power that all men feel 
belongs to God alone; power that he has never 



256 C. E. B. 

delegated to any creature — that he can not dele- 
gate, for only one who reads the heart — who sees 
that its faith is real — can declare its sins forgiven. 
If, in this assumption, Jesus was guilty of blas- 
phemy, how could he heal the man? Would 
God, who sent him as a prophet to teach merely, 
have indorsed such teaching? Did Satan help 
him to cast out Satan ? No ; the whole incident 
shows as clear as sunlight that the carpenters 
son, in his house at Capernaum, was as truly 
God, as when he sat upon his throne in heaven ; 
as truly God, as when he said, " Arise, and walk," 
as when he said, "Let there be light/ ' 

I have called attention to this miracle to 
strengthen the faith of my readers in this funda- 
mental doctrine of the gospel. If Jesus of Naza- 
reth is not very God, then we have no sure foun- 
dation, no "Rock of Ages," beneath our feet. 
And if he was "the true God and eternal life," 
then we have here, and in scores of similar in- 
stances, just what we would expect, words and 
deeds that seem to be, as it were, incidental, and 
yet are wholly inconsistent with any other idea. 
So the divinity of the Son of man runs all through 
the narrative. It is the very woof of the texture. 



CITIES. 257 

It is woven into the entire gospel story from the 
miraculous conception to the miraculous ascen- 
sion. I can understand how a man can reject the 
Bible ; for he probably does so without examining 
it. But how any one can read the Bible and yet 
be a Unitarian, I can not understand. Take from 
the four Gospels the full and absolute divinity of 
Christ, and they present to us one of the most in- 
consistent and incredible stories imaginable. Ac- 
custom yourself to ask, as you read, if Jesus was 
a mere man, would he have said this? could ho 
have done this? and you will be surprised to find 
that nearly every verse is a direct or incidental 
proof-text of his divinity. 



CITIES. 



I have fallen into the habit when I want light 
on any subject of going first to the Bible. What 
does it say about cities? There is only one men- 
tioned before the flood. Cain went and built 
that just after he had murdered Abel. The first 
city was founded by the first murderer. There 

may not be anything particularly significant i *» 
17 



258 C. E. B. 

that, but such is the fact as Inspiration has re- 
corded it. After the flood, men began to build a 
city on the plain of Shinar. There is some differ- 
ence of opinion as to their special object, but that 
it was godless and heaven-defying, is evident 
from the fact that God came down and con- 
founded their speech and scattered them. The 
third account of cities in the Bible is that four of 
them, in a fruitful plain, a very garden of the 
Lord in natural fertility and beauty, were so 
polluted by the vices of their inhabitants that God 
rained down fire and brimstone and destroyed 
them. 

So much for the early history of what men call 
centers of civilization. In the Prophecies the rec- 
ord in regard to cities is not much better. Fear- 
ful are the denunciations of Babylon, Nineveh, 
Tyre, etc. Going on into the New Testament we 
find Christ accusing even Jerusalem of great guilt, 
and consigning it to destruction. And in the 
last book of the Bible we have a most graphic 
picture of a city that made all nations drink of 
the wine of the wrath of her fornication. (Rev. 
xiv. 8.) This city, we are told, became the habi- 
tation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, 



; 



CITIES. 259 

and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
(Rev. xviii. 2.) 

After reading this dark record of the cities of 
the earth, we would expect that the home pre- 
pared for the redeemed would be a garden, like 
the primeval Eden. But no; it is a city with 
walls and gates and streets; a holy city into 
which nothing that defileth can enter. Hence 
we infer that, after all, cities are not to be con- 
sidered as utterly and hopelessly bad. The truth 
doubtless is that men, when crowded together 
with evil hearts, corrupt each other, and thus 
these masses of fallen humanity, in all ages, have 
tended to moral putrefaction. But, a city of holy 
spirits, who would stimulate each other by a pure 
sympathy, and a sanctified sociability, would be 
one of the most delightful of dwelling-places. 
As the gospel becomes more influential upon 
men's hearts and lives, our cities improve. 
They are now, with all their vices, centers of 
great moral power and Christian enterprise. In 
them are located the agencies that are evangeliz- 
ing the world. In them are the men whose 
princely benevolence sustains these agencies. 

Yet the city needs the country. The city 



26o C. E. B. 

population must be recruited from the country. 
A large proportion of the most active and useful 
men in all our cities were born and raised in the 
country. They bring into those centers of civili- 
zation fresh blood from time to time. Without 
the farmers' sons in its stores and offices what 
would New York, Chicago, or Cincinnati be to- 
day? The rural element sends into the cities not 
only vigorous physical life to meet the wear and 
tear of their intense and abnormal activity, but it 
sends new moral strength to resist the temptations 
of the city — the tendency of that massing of 
humanity to corruption. 

And does it not follow from these facts that 
the young people in our cities should be en- 
couraged to seek homes in the country ; that es- 
pecially those whom God blesses with large fami- 
lies should try, if possible, to bring them up on 
farms, in the purer atmosphere, both physical 
and moral, of the valleys and the hills? If we 
could thus alternate between town and country ; 
let one generation grow up outside and the next 
inside of the cities, we should have stronger and 
better men and women than we now have. The 
cities would refine and elevate our country life ; 



CITIES. 26l 

the country would revigorate the physical and 
moral life of the cities. 

What we need just now is to turn the currents 
of population away from the cities. There is too 
much blood in the heart, and not enough in the 
extremities. We, as a people, are too fond of 
excitement, too anxious to get rich in a hurry. 
We don't like patient toil, slow accumulations, 
the quiet of rural life. Our spirits are feverish, 
and we call the fever enterprise. We think it an 
evidence of intense and noble vitality, when it is 
really abnormal, a disease. 

As I meet in the streets of San Francisco care- 
worn men and women, I often wish I had a 
million acres of land, with ten thousand cottages 
on it, so that I could say to ten thousand families : 
Come out of this hot and unhealthy atmosphere, 
and earn your bread by tilling the soil. I don't 
believe that just now, in this land, a rich man 
could do so much good in any other way as by 
colonizing the surplus and unemployed population 
of the cities on our tracts of unoccupied land. It 
might be done so as to be even profitable finan- 
cially. But it could not fail to be profitable 
benevolently. And a few such movements 



262 C. E. B. 

would help to solve the great problem that 
presses upon us — what shall be done with the 
workmen for whom there is no work? It is foil}/ 
to attribute all the present depression, even on 
this coast, to the presence of the Chinamen. 
The great cause is the aversion of the people to 
rural life — their morbid love for the excitements 
of the city, and their inability, even when willing, 
to go out and become tillers of the soil. 



GRAIN AND CHAFF. 

We had ten stacks of grain, making five "set- 
tings." They had cost us a great deal of labor 
and of money. We bought seed last November. 
We plowed our fields, sowed the grain, and har- 
rowed it in. We watched it while it grew ; when 
it was ripe we reaped it, and stacked it. We 
knew just how much those stacks had cost us, 
but their value was a matter of conjecture merely. 
Indeed, they had no market value as they stood. 
They must be threshed. The golden grain must 
be separated from the comparatively worthless 
chaff and straw. So we engaged a man to come 






GRAIN AND CHAFF. 263 

with a separator, a steam-engine, eight horses 
and twenty-two men to thresh for us. We had 
to furnish fuel for the engine and food for the 
horses and men. For a week our house was 
turned into a hotel. We employed a Chinaman 
to cook. He had to get breakfast ready for the 
threshers at five o'clock in the morning, for they 
wanted to be out in the field at work as soon as 
they could see. The amount of provisions that t 
those threshers stowed away during that week 
was astonishing. Twenty pounds of beef, a 
wash-boiler full of hot coffee, and other things in 
proportion, three times a day. The engine did 
not work well. They would have to stop every 
hour or two for repairs. On the third day the 
cylinder burst, and it had to be sent to San Jose 
and another brought out in its place. The result 
was that the threshing required twice as long and 
cost nearly twice as much as it should; for the 
farmer has to board the threshers whether they 
work or not, and he has to pay the wages of six- 
teen out of the twenty-two. Well, at the end of 
the week we knew just what our stacks were 
worth. We had the grain in sacks ready for 
market. We were disappointed. We expected 



264 C. E. B. 

two thousand sacks, and we obtained only four- 
teen hundred. But all our neighbors are disap- 
pointed in the same way. The winter was too 
wet. The growth was too rank. There was a 
superabundance of straw, and a light yield of 
grain. This threshing week will be a memorable 
one in our lives. It is a new experience for us, 
and one that we have resolved shall never be re- 
# peated. We will manage hereafter to raise some- 
thing else instead of gr4in, or to devise some 
more civilized way of threshing it. 

But enough of our personal experience. Let 
me add some reflections : 

1. A great many people are like our grain. 
Nobody can tell what is in them until they are 
threshed. The trials of life test our characters. 
They show just what we are worth. A man may 
carry his head high, like a head of shrunken 
wheat (and the lighter the head the higher it is 
carried), until temptation or affliction comes. 
Then he is blown away like chaff. 
2. Threshing is the hardest work of the year. It 
is the time most dreaded by the farmer and his 
family. It is an operation that they regard as 
necessary, and yet shrink from, and rejoice when 




GRAIN AND CHAFF. 265 

it is over. So with the discipline which we all 
need ; which shows us what we are. We know 
that it is for our good, and yet we do not love it! 
It is hard for us to kiss the rod. 

3. As most farmers are dependent on others 
for their threshing, so we secure from others, 
largely, the discipline which tests us. Some one 
has written both wittily and wisely upon "the 
uses of an enemy." Another cried, "Save me 
from my friends. ,, In our intercourse with the 
world there is constant friction and collision. 
Those we trust are ever disappointing us. And 
this "tribulation worketh experience." This 
threshing teaches us to know ourselves. 

4. Most farmers are disappointed when their 
grain is threshed. It seldom turns out as well as 
they expected. From the stack that they 
thought contained five hundred bushels the 
thresher gets but three. So men, when tried, 
find themselves weaker than they thought they 
were. They have not the moral stamina they 
supposed they had. They are disappointed in 
themselves — humbled and ready to look to God 
for strength. Nothing does a man so much good 
as taking the conceit out of him. This is one of 



266 C. E. B. 

the earliest and best results of our disappoint- 
ments in life. This is the preparation for seeking 
the grace which is made perfect in our weakness. 

5. The result of threshing, even in the most 
favorable circumstances, is a great deal more 
straw and chaff than grain. And so the Chris- 
tian finds when afflictions come that the dross in 
him far exceeds the gold — that there is an im- 
mense amount of "wood, hay and stubble." 

Finally, as we rejoiced when our threshing was 
over, so there will be joy when the saints come 
out of great tribulation, with robes washed and 
made white in the blood of the Lamb. There is 
a great deal of trouble in this world. We often 
feel as if God dealt harshly with us. But when 
we see how necessary and how merciful the disci- 
pline was, we shall thank him most for what now 
seems most unkind. 

But I am so weary with the threshing itself that 
I can not write about it as I would. I feel to-day 
as if I had been threshed as well as my grain. 



A VILLAGE PASTOR. 267 

A VILLAGE PASTOR. 

I am writing to-day in the study of a church 
with which I spent the Sabbath. Its history has 
a moral. Let all restless young ministers read 
and ponder. 

Eight years ago there was a town here of a 
thousand inhabitants and no church. It was a 
railroad town, with a score of grog-shops, all in 
full blast on the Sabbath. A young minister 
came, and found here half a dozen professors of 
religion ; some were Presbyterians, some Congre- 
gationalists, some Methodists and some Baptists. 
He proposed to preach for them for what they 
could afford to give, the Missionary Society of 
his Church paying the balance of a very moder- 
ate salary. His offer was accepted. He began 
with a handful of hearers, in a school-house. He 
worked on patiently, and lo ! the result ; he has a 
church of over a hundred members ; a church 
edifice, with' audience-room, lecture-room, infant 
class-room and study, that must have cost nearly 
$10,000, free from debt. The lot is large, cen- 
trally located and full of choice shrubbery. 
Everything in and around the church is in excel- 



268 C. E. B, 

lent taste. Opposite the church the pastor has 
built for himself a neat home, as if he meant to 
stay. And everybody means that he shall. 
They say: "He is not a great preacher, but he is 
a good man, and a faithful pastor. He loves us 
and our children. Everybody has confidence in 
him. The worldly and wicked respect him. He 
has an influence which a stranger, no matter how 
talented, could not easily secure." The result is 
that this village pastor has planted himself deeply 
and firmly, in the community for a life of useful- 
ness. His success, thus far, is the pledge and 
earnest of the future. The church to which he 
ministers is a great power for good. It is the ac- 
knowledged center of Christian influence in the 
place. Its pastor is looked up to as a leader in 
all moral and spiritual movements. 

Now, is not such a position all that a minister 
ought to desire? Does it not offer one who loves 
souls a field large enough for his most assiduous 
cultivation? Were I young in the ministry, I 
would try to do just what this brother has done. 
Instead of hunting for what the world calls an invit- 
ing field and a church that can pay a good salary, 
I would go where a church was neededandtry to 






A VILLAGE PASTOR. 269 

gather one. I would, by self-denying labor, so 
entwine it about me, that it would feel that we 
belonged to each other, and ought to live and 
toil together as long as God spared my life. 

We need more such pastorates, and I do be- 
lieve that if our young ministers were wise, if they 
sought fields of permanent usefulness, if they 
tried to locate themselves as early as possible for 
a life-work, our churches would be built up faster 
and stronger than on the present system. Too 
many have the feeling that certain fields will do 
for them to make a beginning of their ministry 
in. As soon as they get some experience and 
reputation as preachers, they look around for a 
more inviting place. They hope ultimately to 
reach a pulpit in one of the great cities. This 
ideal of ministerial life has an unhappy influence in 
many ways. It tempts churches to feel that they 
are estimated according to their size and wealth, 
or according to the size of the place they are 
in ; that ministers regard the smaller and poorer 
churches only as stepping-stones to those that are 
larger. And the minister who gets the spirit and 
the reputation of a place-hunter, will probably 
find his ministry barren of spiritual fruits. Would 



27O C. E. B. 

that the majority of our brethren were willing to 
settle with village and country churches for life, 
as the ministers did in New England two genera- 
tions ago. We know there are difficulties in the 
way in our newer settlements. But these places 
where the population is so constantly shifting 
need, above all others, a permanent ministry. 



WHY DO WE READ IT? 

A good many people read the Bible more or 
less. Probably every professor of religion reads 
a chapter or part of one daily. But why? Could 
we put this question to each of our readers we 
should probably get a variety of answers. Some 
would say that they read because it is a Christian 
duty. They take regular doses of Bible just as 
they take medicine, or exercise, because they 
hope that in some way it will do them good. 
Others have formed the habit of reading about so 
much every morning or evening, and keep it up 
because they pride themselves upon being sys- 
tematic. Others like the stories in the Bible, or 
are interested in its poetry. Others are always 



WHY DO WE READ IT? 2JI 

seeking in it for novelties, and the gratification of 
a morbid curiosity, like the man who searched the 
Scriptures to find out how old Mary was when 
Jesus was born. 

But it was in none of these ways that David 
read his Bible. It was not near as large as ours. 
It probably contained, at most, the Pentateuch, 
Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Job, yet he wrote a 
Psalm of 176 verses to declare his delight in the 
law of the Lord. He studied it because he loved 
it. It was sweeter to him than honey and the 
honey-comb. 

To the saints of all ages the Bible has been not 
only the best, but the most interesting of books. 
They have read it not as a task-book, but as a 
love letter. They have feasted upon its promises, 
and rejoiced in the prospects that it set before 
them. They have studied it as a legatee studies 
the will by which he is entitled to great riches. 

There is no truer test of our spiritual state than 
the feelings with which we read the Bible. If we 
are indeed the children of God the words of our 
Father will be very sweet to us. If we are the 
brethren of Christ the life of our noble Elder 
Brother will be intensely interesting to us. If we 



272 C. E. B. 

are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ we will 
want to know all that is in the will — to gather 
and to treasure every statement in regard to the 
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. 

Does the average professor of religion to-day 
really love to read the Bible ? Does he not pre- 
fer the newspaper? Does he not go over his 
daily chapter from a sense of duty rather than 
with delight? Does he keep the Bible near him 
so that he can turn to it whenever he has leisure? 
Does he meditate upon what he reads? Does he 
feast upon it? Is he ever searching as for hidden 
treasures, and finding new truths that enrich and 
gladden his soul? We fear that this test applied 
would convict many of spiritual declension, would 
show that they are cold and formal, that they have 
left their first love. 

But can we cultivate a more excellent way of 
reading the Bible? Can we learn to love it? 
Yes, for it is, when fully appreciated, the most 
delightful of all books. The trouble is that most 
readers are too superficial. They do not study 
the word of God. They do not get beyond the 
outer rind or husk into the inward sweetness. 
Now, let any one who would acquire a taste for 



WHY DO WE READ IT? 273 

this divine book try this experiment — let him 
take a single verse in the morning, commit it to 
memory, and think about it whenever he can dur- 
ing the day ; let him turn that verse over and over 
in his mind until he realizes something of its 
meaning; thus doing, he will find food for his 
spirit. And his appetite for this kind of food will 
be quickened. He will go to the Bible to get 
fresh supplies of manna. One truth vitalized by 
meditation and prayer will suggest other truths 
related to it, will awaken the desire to know more 
of things spiritual and divine, and the soul will 
become all aglow with interest. The Bible will 
be first in his thoughts in the morning, and last in 
his thoughts at night. The enthusiast in science 
is not the tyro, but the thorough scholar. The 
more the student knows in any department of in- 
vestigation, the more he longs to know. Our 
comparative indifference to the Bible results from 
our ignorance of it. If we will resolve to study 
it henceforth instead of running over its chapters 
and verses, as a matter of form, we shall soon be- 
come fascinated with its unfoldings of truth and 

love. 

18 



274 C. E. B. 

IDEALS OF LIFE. 

As I watch the crowds surging through the 
streets of this great city, I ask myself, What is 
their idea of life? They are evidently in earnest 
about something, and in a great hurry to secure 
it. What is that something? In most cases it is 
money. But money is only a cold, hard metal. 
It is not sought as an end, but as a means. One 
wants money that he may live luxuriously, that 
he may gratify his tastes and appetites, or his lusts 
and passions. His ideal is basely sensual. He 
cares not for the future, but only for the present. 
With all his business enterprise and skill he is a 
mere animal. He is of the earth, earthy. I fear 
that a large proportion of the men and women, 
even in Christian lands, are practically material- 
ists. They have a vague belief in the soul and in 
immortality, but that belief has very little influ- 
ence upon their daily lives. They live as if there 
was nothing above mortality or beyond the grave. 

But there are some in these hurrying crowds 
who seek money because it will give them reputa- 
tion and .power. Nay, it will enable them to 
build for themselves monuments that shall carry 






IDEALS OF LIFE. 275 

tiieir names down to distant generations. The 
instinct of immortality is strong in these men, but 
they seek to gratify it on the earth and in earthly 
things. They think proudly of what men will 
say about them after they are dead. They dream 
of the crowds who shall visit the institutions they 
endow, and praise them as benefactors of the race. 
But all their enjoyment is in anticipation. There 
is no evidence or reason for believing that their 
spirits will be permitted to return and listen to 
the eulogies that are pronounced upon them. 

This ideal of life is nobler than that of the sen- 
sualist, but it fails, because it provides only for 
the mortal and the earthly part. It lays up no 
treasure for the soul. 

There is a third class who believe in immortal- 
ity; who realize the duty of securing the salvation 
of the soul; but who, when they obtain a hope 
through Christ of eternal life, seem to think that 
the spiritual part of their work is done. Now 
they need not care specially for the future. Its 
interests are secured. They have a policy of in- 
surance. They are safe ; what more do they 
need? It seems almost incredible that a Christian 
should feel and reason thus ; but I am afraid that 



276 C. E. B. 

many do. With them, escape from eternal death, 
securing an entrance into heaven, is the Alpha and 
Omega of religion. 

Now and then I meet a man who has a higher 
ideal. He sees that this life, though in itself but 
a vapor, is inestimably important and solemn in 
its relation to the life to come. Here and now, 
we are not only to secure the soul's safety in that 
life, but its social position, its wealth, its relative 
honor and happiness. Here and now, we are not 
only to obtain a title to heaven, but to lay up 
treasures in heaven. Here and now, we are to 
gather jewels for our crown of rejoicing. The 
wise husbandman sows bountifully that he may 
reap bountifully. This is our spiritual seedtime, 
and the harvest is after death. The Christian will, 
therefore, be always striving to do good, that he 
may enjoy the fruit of his labors over there. He 
will invest all that he can of time and energy and 
means in work for Christ, knowing that for such 
work he will be rewarded in the great day. Let 
it not be objected that this is a selfish view of life. 
We are created to love ourselves, to seek for hap- 
piness. It is our duty to make the most of our- 
selves and of our opportunities. We can do this 



IDEALS OF LIFE. 2^ 

only by taking into account our whole life — the 
present and the future— the time of probation 
and the time of fruition. 

When the sculptor had a shapeless block of 
marble brought into his studio and began to 
chisel upon it, he had an ideal of what it might 
be. He said that he saw an angel in it. And he 
worked day after day, with patient energy, until 
he brought out the angel. Such is the ideal we 
should each have of ourselves. A character may 
be wrought out here fit to shine in heaven. 
Every day and hour we should be toiling to de- 
velop and perfect that character, to bring out the 
angel whose wings we may almost feel fluttering 
within us. The Holy Spirit has given to each be- 
liever the germ of a new life. That germ is to be 
cultivated that it may grow, that in due time may 
come from it the blade, the ear, and the full corn 
in the ear. Our years on earth are given us that 
we may grow in grace, that, beginning as babes 
in Christ, we may attain to the stature of men. 
This is our great business ; this is numbering our 
days, so as to apply our hearts unto wisdom. 

Thus, whether we look at the preparation we 
need for heaven, or at the importance of laying 



278 C. E. B. 

up treasures there, we see that this life is inti- 
mately connected with the life to come. We see 
that the true ideal of this life must be shaped and 
colored by what God has revealed of the celestial 
life. Wisely has he made its blessedness depend 
upon our fidelity here ; for the more faithful we 
are to the future, the more useful we shall be in 
the present. We do not get ready for heavenly 
joys by sitting down and dreaming about them, 
but by doing good. Active benevolence does 
two things for us : It polishes our souls, and it 
makes investments for us in heaven. In giving a 
cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, we 
make ourselves more Christ-like, and we secure a 
reward in the day of Christ. Happy thus the 
man who lives not for the pleasures of sense, not 
for the applause of men, but for glory, honor and 
immortality at God's right hand. He will be the 
best citizen, because his citizenship is also in 
heaven. His earthly home will be filled with 
light and love, because he will bring into it the 
atmosphere of the heavenly home for which he is 
trying to be prepared. He will be diligent in 
business, for whatever he does he does heartily 
as unto the Lord. He will be honest, for he real- 



ENDURANCE, ACQUIESCENCE, ETC. 279 

izes that God's eye is ever upon him, and that he 
must soon be judged according to his deeds. He 
will be benevolent and charitable, for he reads in 
his Bible: "He that loveth is born of God, and 
knoweth God; for God is love." 



ENDURANCE, ACQUIESCENCE, THANK- 
FULNESS. 

Three children were playing beside a little 
brook. Their shouts and laughter showed that 
they were having a merry time. Their mother 
came and called them. They stopped their play 
and listened. One said, with a sad face, "Well, 
I suppose that we must go. It is mother that 
calls and we ought to obey her." Another said, 
more cheerfully, "Of course, we must go, for 
mother loves us and she wouldn't call us if it were 
not best." But the third said, "Let us go quick- 
ly. I am glad she called us, for mother is so 
good I know that she has something nice for us. 
She has not called us to break up our play, but 
to make us happier at home than we were or 
could be here by the brook." 






280 C. E. B. 

These children represent three classes of per- 
sons who call themselves Christians. Every trial 
or disappointment is like the interruption of their 
play by the brook. It is God calling us to go 
somewhere else, or to do something else. To 
the man of business he says, ' 'Leave your store, 
or your office, and lie down in your chamber and 
suffer." To the rich he says, "Leave your 
wealth and all the luxuries it enabled you to en- 
joy, and work for your daily bread." To the 
proud, fond mother he says, "Give me your 
child, and sit desolate in the home which his 
prattle filled so full of music." 

In these and many similar cases, if we do not 
murmur, if we endure affliction patiently, if we 
say, "It is the Lord; he gave and he has a right 
to take away," we think that we manifest a Chris- 
tian spirit. But this is only a kind of baptized 
stoicism. It is submitting to what can't be 
helped, just because it is inevitable. It is refrain- 
ing from murmuring, because murmuring would 
do no good. The Christian spirit is not that of a 
slave who submits silently and makes the best of 
his hard lot. No, it is the spirit of the child who 
loves his heavenly Father, who has confidence in 



ENDURANCE, ACQUIESCENCE, ETC. 28 I 

that Father's love for him, and who receives 
whatever he sends as a love-gift. 

Many who get beyond the spirit of mere en- 
durance, who accept God's dispensations cheer- 
fully, who really feel that whatever he does is 
right and wise, yet do not not realize that afflic- 
tions are blessings, that trials are mercies, that 
bereavements are bestowments, that whatever 
God sends is good and kind as well as right. 
Few of us are able with Paul to ' 'glory in in- 
firmities," to rejoice in sufferings, to say "when I 
am weak, then am I strong." Job cried with 
noble patience and good sense, "Shall we receive 
good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not 
receive evil also?" But to the Christian nothing 
received from God's hand is evil. "All things 
work together for good to them that love God." 
As a child, as an heir of glory, he should wel- 
come with gratitude every dispensation. He 
should bless God for the sunshine and for the 
cloud, for the day and for the night, for health 
and for sickness, for friends and children given, 
for friends and children taken away, for life and 
for death. This is the true spirit of adoption 
which enables us always to cry, Abba, Father — 



282 C. E. B. 

to cry thus lovingly and thankfully, not merely 
with submission or even acquiescence. It is well 
to believe in God as just and wise and good, but 
we ought to go beyond this as Christians. We 
ought to believe in him as our best friend, and in 
all his providential dealings as proofs of his cove- 
nant love. 



PATIENCE, COMFORT, HOPE. 

Reading to-day the fourth verse of the fifteenth 
chapter of Romans, I was specially interested in 
what is there stated as to the object and influence 
of the Scriptures. They teach and inspire pa- 
tience, comfort and hope. Are not these the 
essential elements of success and happiness? Pa- 
tience involves the idea of cheerful waiting. Much 
of our unhappiness comes from expecting imme- 
diate results. We sow to-day, and we fret and 
worry because we can not reap to-morrow. We 
watch the trees that we plant, and ask impatient- 
ly, why is the fruit so long in coming? We for- 
get that God has said, "In due season . . if 
we faint not." We want to hasten the seasons. 



PATIENCE, COMFORT, HOPE. 283 

This spirit is the very antipode of faith. With it 
comes the temptation to fear that what is so slow 
in appearing will never come at all ; and this fear, 
though it be but vague and shadowy, though we 
do not fully yield to it, yet clouds our sky. How 
shall we resist this demon of impatience? We 
may say to him, as Christ did: "It is written." 
The only effectual antidote to the restless spirit, 
with which the very air seems laden in our day, is 
the Scriptures. What wonderful teachers of pa- 
tience they are ! Think of Abraham, how he be- 
lieved and waited ! Think of the Hebrews in 
Egypt ! Think of Moses, forty years a shepherd 
in the wilderness ! Think what multitudes, under 
the Old Dispensation, endured as seeing him who 
is invisible ! If we study these examples, we 
shall be ashamed of our childish fretfulness, and 
learn to wait on the Lord. 

But the Scriptures give us comfort. They are 
inspired by "the Comforter." The Greek word 
translated comfort is parakleseos — the help of the 
paraklete, the influence of the Holy Ghost sancti- 
fying through the truth (John xvii. 17). Our 
English word comfort comes from the Latin con- 
fortare. It means, literally, to strengthen. It is 



284 C. E. B. 

a sense of weakness that saddens and discourages 
us. When we are strong we are cheerful and 
hopeful. Work that is too hard for us, that we 
grapple with only to fail, drives us to despair. 
But in the Bible we read the words of the Omnip- 
otent, "Lo, I am with you always;" "My grace 
is sufficient for you : for my strength is made per- 
fect in weakness." Reading this, and believing 
it, we can glory even in infirmities. Our very 
weakness is a source of joy. Our lowliness is like 
that of the ocean shore, it enables the tide to 
come in and cover our imperfections, and make 
our feeble spirits mirrors reflecting the glory of 
God. 

Herein is comfort. Our heavenly Father not 
only sympathizes with us, and assures us that all 
will be well at last if we patiently work and wait, 
but he comes and works with us. He tells us 
what to do, and helps us to do it. Every life of 
faith is all through like the single act of faith, by 
which the sick were healed when Christ was on 
the earth. That man with a withered hand felt 
weak and sad, no doubt, as we often do. But 
when the divine Savior said, "Stretch forth thy 
hand," he knew just what to do, knew that he 



PATIENCE, COMFORT, HOPE. 285 

would be enabled to do it, and that doing it he 
would be healed. Then what a thrill of hope 
must have entered his soul as he heard that com- 
mand ! And so may our souls ever be thrilled as 
we study the word of God. It is full of com- 
mandments that imply promises. When it tells 
us to do anything, it means that we shall have 
grace to do it, and the joy of seeing it done. 

For the result of Bible-taught patience and 
comfort is "hope." This is called the soul's 
anchor. No matter how the storm drives, and the 
currents drift, and the rocks threaten, if the anchor 
holds. "We are saved by hope" — not to be 
saved, but "are saved." Too many people push 
the expectation of spiritual good away into the 
future. They believe that God is able and will- 
ing to make them happy in heaven, but not in 
this world. Here they must be weary and sad, 
and stumble and sigh. There is no help for it. 
The trouble with us all is that we don't study the 
Scriptures enough to get out the comfort that is in 
them. That comfort is not luxurious ease, sen- 
sual gratifications and worldly prosperity. It is 
not health and human friendship. It is oftenest 
given in connection with poverty and sickness, 



286 C. E. B. 

and toil and reproach. It is the "peace of God 
that passeth human understanding. ,, 

The traveler on a wintry day, wrapped in his 
fur robes and whirled along by his fleet horses, 
pities the poor man whom he sees climbing a 
rugged mountain path with a burden on his back. 
But the climber may be warmer and happier than 
the traveler. Exercise quickens the circulation. 
His home is near. He has something in his pack 
that will make his wife and children happy. He 
sings responsive to the storm ; while the rich man 
shivers, frets at his horses, and broods anxiously 
over the business which he hastens to attend to. 

The Bible says, "He giveth his beloved sleep. " 
While the godless and unbelieving toss upon their 
beds, thinking what may happen, or what they 
must do on the morrow, the Christian pillows his 
head on some sweet promise, casts all his care on 
Him who careth for him, and rests like a babe in 
its mother's arms. 

But* the comfort that is in the Scriptures will 
not come to us in a miraculous way. We must 
study them. We must not only read, but 
memorize and meditate upon the promises. We 
must make them our own by an appropriating 






SPIRIT AND LIFE. 28j 

faith. In the Middle Ages, if a man who could 
not read could get a Bible and put it under 
his pillow, he thought that he was safe from 
witches. The Bible, even in an unknown tongue, 
was a magic talisman. But though we smile 
at this obsolete superstition, we are almost as 
foolish. We have a copy of God's word, richly 
bound and illustrated, on our center-table. But 
David tells us that he hid it in his heart. Do 
we? Grain- in his granary will not enrich the 
farmer. He must sow and cultivate it. And 
Bible truth is the good seed of the kingdom, and 
by prayerful study it will bring us wisdom and 
joy, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold. 



SPIRIT AND LIFE. 

In that remarkable discourse of our Savior re- 
corded in the sixth chapter of John, he says: The 
words that I speak are spirit and life. Those 
words excited the anger or the scorn of the Phari- 
sees. They staggered the faith of the disciples. 
They seemed at the time to have no power but 
to puzzle or disgust those who heard them. But 



288 C. E. B. 

when they were written under the inspiration of 
the Spirit, and he quickened those who read 
them, how wonderful they were! Those words 
have gone into all lands and adown the ages as 
mighty spirits, transforming the hearts and lives 
of men. It is not because Christ was a teacher 
of truth merely, but because he spake with 
authority ; because, being divine, he must im- 
press something of his own attributes upon his 
utterances ; because, being the great Creator and 
Life-giver, he could breathe into his words, as into 
the molded dust of Adam, the breath of life. 

We accept the whole Bible as inspired. We 
confide implicitly in all its declarations as true — 
in all its promises as trustworthy. But what 
Christ said with his human lips seems to bring us 
nearer to the mind and heart of God than what 
the Spirit said through David or through Paul. 
And hence no words have had such power to 
convince, to persuade, to comfort, and to sanctify 
as those of Jesus himself. As we read them we 
seem to hear the voice of God. They are plain 
and simple, but they embody a force and mean- 
ing that are superhuman. 

Do we realize what a blessing it is to have 









SPIRIT AND LIFE. 289 

these words of Jesus? Think of a prisoner in his 
cell condemned to die. A skillful advocate 
brings him a written argument to prove that he 
ought to be pardoned. He is shown a petition 
numerously signed, asking the Governor to par- 
don him. A friend comes and says: I have 
talked with the Governor, and he tells me that he 
means to pardon you. All this is comforting, 
but fails to satisfy the prisoner. There is hope in 
it, but there is no life in it. One word from the 
Governor himself would be worth more than all 
of it. If he comes to the dungeon door and says: 
"Jailer, I pardon this man; let him go free" — 
these are words of life. And like these are the 
words of Jesus. They are not arguments to 
prove something. They are not reports of what 
somebody has seen or heard. They are royal 
words, divine words, words instinct with creative 
energy. They are the words of him who said, 
"Let there be light, and there was light. " 

And as Jesus himself is the same yesterday, to- 
day, and forever, so are his words. They are as 
full of spirit and life to-day as they were on the 
day of Pentecost. When I take up my New 
Testament and read the Savior's invitations and 
19 



2gO C. E. B, 

( promises, those wonderful pictures of truth and 
love, the parables, there is an electric contact be- 
tween my spirit and the spirit world ; those are 
not mere words, signs of ideas that enter my 
mind through the eye. They have life. They 
enter into my life with a mysterious, magnetic, 
transforming power. They impart to me not 
new thoughts merely; they kindle not new hopes 
merely; they renew my character and life. 
Prayerfully studying those divine words, I am 
"changed into the same image from glory to 
glory." 

I wonder at myself that I do not prize more 
highly these words of the Son of God. I ought 
to memorize them ; to be so familiar with them 
that they would hover around me like ministering 
spirits. Jesus said something that is adapted to 
every phase and emergency of our earthly lives. 
He uttered just the truth we need now, just 
the truth we shall need an hour hence, just the 
truth we shall need every hour until we die. All 
those truths are waiting for us in the Gospels. 
They are all ready to come and abide with us, 
and help us. But how shall they come unless we 
study them, meditate upon them, and welcome 



SFIRIT AND LIFE. 2gl 

them into our memories and our hearts? Christ 
said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in 
you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
done unto you." What did he mean by his 
words abiding in us? That we should keep 
printed copies of them in our homes, and glance 
over them in the morning before we are half 
awake, and late in the evening when we are 
already half asleep ? 

PLANTING THEM. 

I think one object of Christ in saying that his 
words are life is to tell us that if we plant them in 
our hearts they will grow. A diamond secured is 
worth as much to-day as it will ever be ; but a 
seed may produce a hundred-fold. A scion may 
become a tree loaded with fruit. The diamond 
is brilliant, but lifeless. The seed and the tree 
are alive. And it is wonderful what a fruitage of 
grace we may secure by planting and cultivating 
a single word of Jesus. Take this sentence (John 
x. u), "I am the Good Shepherd;" study it, 
apply it to all the varying wants and trials of life. 
It will grow upon you in beauty, in sweetness, 
and in power, until you will almost feel as if you 
could be happy with that one divine utterance. 



2g2 C. E. B. 

He who is loved and cared for by a Shepherd 
omnipresent, omnipotent, infinitely wise and 
good, what more can he wish for or need ? Oh, 
what a fountain of living waters that verse has 
been to millions of thirsty souls! Oh, what a 
tree of life it has been, shading and feeding the 
weary ones who have trusted in it ! Let us take 
such precious words as these, coming as they do 
fresh and warm from the heart of God, into our 
hearts, and we shall learn the secret of growing in 
grace; we shall find these words striking their 
roots deep into the soil and filling the soul with 
ever-widening harvests of spiritual good. 

THE BIBLE SAFE. 

Spirits don't die ; and words that are spirit and 
life must survive all the assaults of demons and of 
wicked men. Books of science may become ob- 
solete ; human constitutions and laws may be sup- 
planted by others if not better ones; the popular 
literature of an age or nation may pass away ; but 
these divine utterances are not of the earth, 
earthy. They are instinct with the life of him 
who uttered them. They can never fail while 
God reigns. He sent them forth as his messen- 



SCARCELY— ABUNDANTLY. 293 

gers to the children of men. They have a mis- 
sion to accomplish until the end of time. They 
will not only to abide, but will grow in influence 
until they fill the earth. He who accepts Christ's 
own statement about his words need have no fear 
that any weapon formed against them shall pros- 
per. He who is himself "the Word" that was 
with God and that was God, will see to it that all 
his words, uttered to men and for men, live on 
until their work for him is accomplished, and 
then live on forever in the grateful recollection 
and in the praises of those who were saved by 
them. 



SCARCELY— ABUNDANTLY. 

I am requested to reconcile two apparently 
conflicting passages in the Epistles of Peter. He 
says (1 Peter iv. 18), "If the righteous scarcely 
be saved." He says (2 Peter i. n), "For so an 
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundant- 
ly," etc. 

The word "scarcely" in the first passage is 
molis. It might have been translated "hardly," 



294 C. E. B. 

"with difficulty." It is parallel with the exhorta- 
tion of Paul: "Work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling" (Philippians ii. 12), and with 
that of Peter himself: "Give diligence to make 
your calling and election sure." Nay, both are 
based upon the declaration of the Master himself: 
"Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which 
leadeth unto life." Though the Bible proclaims 
"a great salvation," and declares that whosoever 
believeth shall be saved, it tells us of easily beset- 
ting sins, and of enemies that lie in w T ait for our 
souls. We are to fight the good fight of faith. 
We wrestle "against principalities, against pow- 
ers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. " 
But if we put on the whole armor of God and 
resist evil; if, despite of all obstacles, we press 
toward the mark for the prize of our high calling; 
if we struggle, weary, travel-stained and battle- 
scarred, to the gate of heaven, we shall not find it 
narrow like the gate on earth at which we en- 
tered. And as we draw near, that gate will open, 
and thousands of shining ones will" come to meet 
us, with shouts and songs of welcome. We will 
enter as victors. White robes and golden crowns 



SCARCELY ABUNDANTLY. 295 

will be given to us, and our Savior will say, 
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you." Thus the scarcely 
saved, the toiling, struggling saint, who went up 
by the strait and narrow way, shall find no more 
straitness or narrowness, but fullness of joy and 
pleasures forevermore. 

A few years after the close of our first war with 
England, a Government vessel was sent to France 
to bring Lafayette to our shores. The whole 
nation was waiting to welcome him. The mo- 
ment the vessel appeared in New York harbor, 
cannons were to be fired, bells rung, bonfires 
lighted, flags unfurled, and the entire population 
was ready to rush to the Battery with expressions 
of gratulation and joy. The captain of the vessel 
knew of this abundant entrance, as he battled 
with the waves of the Atlantic. He knew of it 
as he entered the Narrows. Did he say, "As we 
shall be so triumphantly received in New York, 
we need not be vigilant on the ocean and in the 
'Narrows?' ' On the contrary, he would regard 
the promised welcome as an additional induce- 
ment to try to make the voyage safe and success- 
ful. He would watch his chart and compass. He 



296 C. E. B. 

would take soundings. He would secure a pilot 
familiar with the rocks and currents of the chan- 
nel. He would say: "The nation is expecting 
us. The nation is waiting to welcome its guest ; 
I must give all diligence to reach the harbor 
safely for the sake of the nation, as well as for 
that of my distinguished passenger and my 
crew." So in the case of every tempted, strug- 
gling believer. Let him press on, though the 
way is hard ; for heaven is waiting to welcome 
him. God and angels are expecting him. The 
joy-bells are ready to be rung, and myriads of 
the glorified to shout aloud as soon as he appears 
at the gate of pearl. And the difficulties of the 
way will enhance the rapture of that abundant 
entrance. 



LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 

This is the condition of salvation. "Look 
unto me and be ye saved." (Isaiah xlv. 22.) It 
is also the condition of growth in grace. i 'Look- 
ing unto Jesus; the author and finisher of our 



LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 297 

faith." (Hebrews xii. 2.) What, then, is look- 
ing unto Jesus? 

Did you ever see a mother looking at her 
babe? She has seen it almost every hour for 
months. Yet she gazes upon it as if she would 
devour it with her eyes. How intense is that 
love-look! Not the grandest painting, or most 
gorgeous panorama, could fix her gaze, as does 
the face of that child, which is the idol of her 
heart. So we are to look unto Jesus. Look 
unto him as the chiefest among ten thousand, 
the one altogether lovely. 

Did you ever see an artist looking at a picture 
of one of the old masters? How steadily and 
patiently he gazes upon it. How he studies 
every feature, every hue and shading. After 
spending hours before it he feels that he has just 
begun to see its real beauty. He wants to go, 
day after day, and commune, through that pic- 
ture, with the man whose genius created it. As 
he looks at the old painting, so should we look 
unto Jesus, studying, with an interest that never 
flags, his character and his life; seeing new 
beauty in it every time we gaze upon it, and ever 
seeking to be like him. Looking not merely to 



298 C. E. B. 

admire, but to imitate, that we may be changed 
into the same image. 

Have you ever seen a pilot looking at the har- 
bor light, when the night is dark and the wind is 
high? He knows that the safety of the vessel 
depends on his steering it constantly by that light. 
If he lets his bow drift even a few points away he 
may strike upon a rock. Hence, he never turns 
his eyes for a moment from that beacon blaze. 
And while he looks his hands are upon the wheel. 
He keeps the vessel headed toward the light, 
into which he looks so steadily. And so the 
Christian looks unto Jesus. He is "the light of 
life." Toward him we not only turn always, but 
struggle and strive. We long to be like him, to 
get near him, to keep our minds and hearts in the 
knowledge and the love of him. 

Have you ever seen the patient looking to his 
physician? How anxious that look. He would 
read his life or death in the doctor's face. He 
feels he can do nothing for himself; that all de- 
pends upon the doctor's skill. So looks the sin- 
sick soul to the great Physician. But it looks 
knowing that it will read hope and life in the face 
of Christ. It looks, however, with the interest 



LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 299 

and intensity of one who feels that the soul's des- 
tiny for all the ages of its being depends on the 
power and love of Jesus only. 

You have read of shipwrecked sailors, to whom 
a life-boat was sent from the shore. You can 
easily imagine how they would look to it, as it 
struggled to reach them over the billows. They 
would not be gazing all about, but every man 
would fix his eye on that one object. He would 
see nothing but the life-boat. He would think of 
nothing else, care for nothing else. If that boat 
reaches and rescues him, he is safe. If it fails, he 
must perish. And Jesus is the life-boat for souls 
that are shipwrecked. He is their only hope. 
They look to him, then, and to him alone. 
They care for him, and him only. If he 
saves them, they are safe forevermore. If his 
power or his love should fail, they must perish 
forevermore. Yes, the man who realizes his lost 
condition, and the salvation that is in Christ, 
must so look unto him that he shall seem to see 
nothing in all the universe but him. 

Now combine these pictures and we begin to 
get an idea of what is meant by looking unto 
Jesus. It is not a single glance, a turning the 



300 C, E. B. 

thoughts to him, now and then, that saves and 
sanctifies; but such a looking as expresses all the 
love and anxiety and hope and trust of a soul 
feeling its need of salvation, and realizing that he 
alone can save. 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 

This is an age of promises. The United 
States Government has issued hundreds of mil- 
lions. The banks issue them. The railroad 
companies issue them. The mining companies 
issue them. Corporations of all kinds issue 
them. They are called notes, bonds and cer- 
tificates of stock. But they are simply prom- 
ises. Their value does not depend on their size, 
color, quality of paper or phraseology, but upon 
what they promise, and the character of the 
promiser. The bonds of a bankrupt railroad or 
fraudulent mine appear as well, and often better, 
than those of the corporations that pay twenty 
per cent, per annum. The Government regis- 
tered bond for a million of dollars does not differ 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 301 

greatly in form and looks from the bond for 
fifty dollars. 

A glance at the quotations in our commercial 
papers will show a wonderful diversity in the es- 
timated value of these promises. Bonds that 
pledge to the holder ten per cent, per annum 
are sold for three cents on the dollar; while 
United States bonds, that promise only four per 
cent, are sold at 104 to 105. Why this differ- 
ence in the preciousness of the promises? The 
former are issued by an irresponsible company, 
the latter, by what we consider the strongest and 
richest Government in the world. 

Now, every reader of the Bible knows that 
God has been issuing promises for thousands of 
years. Peter says that they are " exceedingly 
great and precious." If so, they are a good 
investment. Let us see if the apostle's state- 
ment is true, or is like the glowing advertisement 
of a bogus joint stock company. We may prof- 
itably study this financial problem under four 
heads: Who promises; what he promises; the 
conditions of the promises, and the experience 
of those who have trusted in them. 



302 C. E. D. 

WHO PROMISES. 

A man has a thousand dollars to invest. He 
is offered a mortgage on land at ten per cent., 
and a United States bond at four per cent. He 
chooses the latter. Why? The Government 
does not pledge to him its property. It does 
not even give him a right to bring suit against 
it in the courts. His only guaranty for the safety 
of his money is its ability and character. The 
Government is a permanent institution. It rep- 
resents, and in a degree controls, the wealth of 
the nation. It represents also the integrity and 
good faith of the nation. He would rather trust 
it at four per cent., than any individual, or any 
tract of land, at ten per cent. But what is the 
ability or integrity of our Government compared 
with that of Him whose registered bonds fill the 
Bible ! His wealth is incalculable. If we could 
go as light travels for a thousand years, we 
should not reach the limits of his domain. And 
all these myriad worlds roll and shine because 
God is just and true as well as wise and mighty. 
If he should cease to be perfect, confusion and 
chaos would desolate the universe. When such 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. $0$ 

a being issues his bond it ought to command the 
highest premium in the markets of the world. 

WHAT IS PROMISED. 

A bond usually promises the purchaser two 
things : Interest annually at a certain rate, and a 
sum, called the principal, at the end of a specified 
time. Thus, a thousand-dollar 4-20 promises 
four per cent, a year on a thousand dollars, and 
the thousand dollars twenty years from date. In 
all God's promises there is something for both 
the present and the future. Our Savior said, "A 
hundred-fold now; and in the world to come 
eternal life." (Mark x. 30.) This is the Gospel 
Bond, issued by the Eternal Son in the Father's 
name. Who ever heard of such promises else- 
where, or ever dreamed of them? Now and then 
somebody advertises in the papers $50 for $1. 
But who believes it? Yet here the only true God 
says (for this is what it amounts to): "Buy one 
of my $1,000 bonds, and I will pay you on it 
$100,000 a year as long as you live, and when 
you die you shall have a crown and kingdom in 
the skies. Yon shall sit with me on my throne, 
and reign with me forever and ever." Is that a 



304 C. E. B. 

genuine bond? Of course it is; for Christ's 
words will abide after the heavens and the earth 
have passed away. Are many of them in circula- 
tion? Yes, millions! Are they not held at an 
enormous premium? Could a poor man, by any 
means, raise money enough to get one? And if 
so, where must he go to get it? The poorest can 
buy, and the Lord, who issues the bonds, is so 
anxious to sell them that he sends agents around 
with them. I want to make this as plain as possi- 
ble, and shall have to use what some fastidious 
readers may consider a very homely illustration. 

THE CONDITIONS, OR PRICE. 

A peddler came to our house the other day. 
He had brooms to sell. We did not need any, 
and told him that we could not buy as we had no 
money. "Oh," he said, "I don't want money; 
I will take old iron, rags, soap-grease, anything 
that you have — that you don't care for — that you 
throw away." It was hard to refuse to buy under 
such circumstances, even if the brooms were not 
very good. But now suppose, instead of a 
broom, he had offered me a bond, such a bond as 
Christ offers — a hundred thousand dollars a year, 



PRECIOUS PROMISES. 305 

and ten or twenty years hence the throne and 
crown of the British Empire — would I not either 
have laughed at him as a lunatic, or gratefully 
given him all the old and worthless things about 
the place and taken the bond? Now, this is not 
stating the case too strongly. The condition of 
the divine promises is that we give up our filthy 
rags, our old, sin-rusted hearts. We have not a 
farthing of the currency of the skies. Spiritually 
considered, we are utterly poor, absolutely penni- 
less, and we must remain so, unless God shall, of 
his own free will, in the abundance of his grace, 
enrich us. This he offers to do. He sends the 
offer to our homes in every copy of the Bible that 
we have. It is filled with bonds, that we can ap- 
propriate to ourselves, and that will insure us the 
hundred-fold now, and the eternal life hereafter. 

THE TESTIMONY OF INVESTORS. 

But if these bonds are so cheap, and yet so 
precious, surely they ought to be popular. Have 
many people taken them? and what do they say 
about them? These bonds have been on the 
market for nearly six thousand years. They have 
been held by many millions of people. They are 



306 C. E. B. 

held to-day in nearly every country on the globe, 
and by some of the wisest and best in those coun- 
tries. I have never heard of a holder who did not 
prize his bond very highly; nay, of one who would 
part with it at any price. Thousands have suf- 
fered death rather than give up these bonds. 
And as to the eternal life promised in them, one 
of the bondholders was permitted by the Lord to 
investigate that matter. He saw a door opened 
in heaven ; he entered ; he beheld there a great 
multitude, that no man could number, clothed in 
white robes, with palms in their hands. These 
are they who trusted in Christ while on the earth, 
and who are now kings and priests in glory. 

Who will doubt the word of God ? Who will 
distrust the testimony of the best men and women 
that have lived upon the earth ? Who will refuse 
to believe in the vision which John saw on Pat- 
mos? Who will not gladly exchange his filthy 
rags for a hundred-fold in this time, and in the 
world to come life everlasting? 



POLISHING THE PLOW. 2>°7 

POLISHING THE PLOW. 

One of our plowmen was going out to plow 
in a field that is "dobe" — that is, the soil is com- 
posed largely of a stiff and sticky clay, such as 
the Spaniards used to make their adobe houses 
from. He sat down with a piece of sandpaper, 
and polished his plowshare until it was as bright 
as a steel mirror. "Why do you do that?" I 
asked. "Why polish it so when you are going 
to put it into the dirt?" "Because," he replied, 
"I don't want the dirt to stick to it. I want 
it to go through that dobe, turn it over, and 
come out clean; not to be gathering loads of it 
on every rust spot and thus be clogged all the 
way. A plow whose share is polished and kept 
so will run easier and do a great deal more work 
than one whose share is rusty." I took my 
spade to dig holes for some trees I wanted to 
plant. I found that the clay stuck to it so that 
it was harder to get the dirt off after it was 
dug than to dig it up. Remembering what the 
plowman did, I polished my spade and then had 
no further trouble. It pays to polish the tools 
we work with, and to keep them bright. 



308 C. E. B. 

But I learned a deeper lesson than this from 
the plow and the spade. We are in the world 
as workers. We have to dig, to turn our furrow, 
to cultivate our plot of ground. The world 
sticks to the worker in it as our dobe soil sticks 
to the plow. If there is a spot of rust upon us, 
if we are selfish or sensual, the clay will fasten 
there and clog our movements. Our only hope 
of getting through the world easily, and of doing 
our work well, is in keeping our spirits pol- 
ished. If we daily study divine truth and seek, 
by prayer, divine help, we shall be kept bright 
and pure; we shall have a spirit so unworldly 
that the world will not be able to fasten itself 
upon us and clog and encumber us. How weary 
and sad is the life of a thoroughly selfish man, 
toiling through the heavy, sticky mire, his soul 
loaded with ambition, avarice, envy; every evil 
passion clinging to the rust spots, making him 
more careworn and wretched the further he goes. 
A spirit polished for the skies works best on 
earth no matter how lowly and hard its sphere. 

I remember in some book of Emblems, per- 
haps it was Quarles', a picture of a ship with this 
motto, "Ii) the water, yet above it," So a 



POLISHING THE PLOW. 3O9 

Christian should go through the world — in it, 
yet above it. He can not avoid some worldly 
toil and care. He must be immersed to a cer- 
tain extent in things material and temporal, as 
the ship's keel must be in the water. He can 
not avoid the pressure of these things as the ship 
must feel the pressure of ocean currents. But 
as the larger and better part of the ship is above 
the water, and, by its sails spread to the winds 
of heaven, it resists the currents of the deep, 
going to its haven even against the Gulf Stream, 
so the Christian is only in and of the world as 
far as his body requires. His higher life is kept 
above the world. He does not permit it to come 
in through leaks and water-log him. He re- 
members his celestial home. He spreads the 
wings of his spirit to catch the air that floats from 
it and would waft him to it. Thus he resists 
temptations ; he overcomes the world, and se- 
cures an abundant entrance into the everlasting 
kingdom. An excellent motto for the Christian 
is, "In the world and yet above the world. " 



310 C. E. B. 

"WE KNOW." 

What is so trying as uncertainty? Let me 
know the worst, cries the wife who sees sad tid- 
ings in her husband's troubled face. But if defi- 
nite knowledge of loss or peril is better than sus- 
pense, with all its shadowy fears, how sweet, how 
blessed, is the certainty of good ! We hope, we 
dream, but to-morrow the bright vision may melt 
like frost-work. To have that hope changed to 
full assurance, that dream made a reality, is what 
we longed for. And how grandly does God, in 
his word, meet this longing. He inspires his 
apostles to say, "we know," and he sends by his 
Spirit those talismanic words echoing through the 
hearts of all Christians. We are, or may be, as 
certain in regard to the great interests of our souls 
as those apostles were. They did not write I 
know, but "we know." They wrote as repre- 
sentative believers, as declaring the certainty 
which belongs of right to every child of God. 
We are not to say we hope ; but are authorized 
to say with Paul and John we know. 

But what do we know? All that we need to 
in regard to our present position, to our future 



" WE KNOW. 311 

in this life, and to our destiny beyond the grave. 
Let us quote three passages, and see if they do 
not cover the whole ground. First: John says: 
"We know that we have passed from death unto 
life." We do not hope that we have been born 
again; that we have become heirs of God and 
joint-heirs with Christ. We are sure of it. The 
Spirit witnesseth with our spirit. It kindles such 
love and joy within us that we can not doubt that 
we are justified by faith. Now this assurance is 
of inestimable value. If we knew nothing but 
this we ought to be happy. For what can we 
fear, if God has become our reconciled Father? 
Who can harm us if the Great Jehovah has taken 
us into his arms of love ? 

But Paul adds : "We know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God." Do 
we love him? Does gratitude glow in our hearts 
when we think of what he has done and suffered 
for us? Then we are certain not only of safety 
but of all the good that we need. Then we know 
that the God we love will compel all things to 
minister to us, as his dear children. Then we 
know that plenty and want, that sickness and 
health, that joy and sorrow, that light and dark- 



312 C. E. B. 

ness, that rain and sunshine, that society and soli- 
tude, that friends and foes, that angels and de- 
mons, that all things, no matter how opposite or 
hostile to each other, shall be obliged to unite in 
promoting our welfare, that they shall be bound 
into a grand co-operative agency for making us 
wiser and holier. The influence of all things in 
this world, which our Father created and controls, 
is direct, positive, and constant in preparing the 
child of God for his home on high. What more 
can we need to give us peace and happiness in 
this life? 

But our knowledge goes beyond this life: "For 
we know that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." Oh, this is the grandest assurance of 
all ! Our life here is but for a day. It matters 
but little, comparatively, whether we spend it in 
health or sickness, in joy or sorrow. A thousand 
ages hence, its threescore years will be but a 
speck in the distant horizon. It will seem as a 
dream does when one awaketh. But the soul is 
to live forever. Where shall it live? Has it a 
home to go to when it leaves this house of clay? 



"we know. 313 

Yes, it has — a God-built and an eternal home. 
No doubt, no dread, as to the future. That is all 
provided for; and we know that it is. Christ 
said, before he left the earth: "I go to prepare a 
place for you . . . and I will come again, 
and receive you unto myself; that where I am 
there ye may be also." We can believe Christ. 
We are sure that he will keep that promise. We 
know from what John saw on Patmos that he did 
keep it, in regard to the saints who had died up 
to that time. Hence we rest, amid all the trials of 
this life, upon the certainty of a home in heaven. 
Christianity is not a superstition or a system of 

philosophy it is a revelation of facts. It is 

not made up of conjectures and probabilities, but 
of certainties. This is its excellence and its glory. 
Every Christian ought to know these things 
which the apostles knew; and knowing them he 
ought to have a peace that nothing can disturb. 
The reason that our spiritual strength is so feeble 
and our spiritual joy is so dim is that we do not 
learn thoroughly the elementary principles of our 
faith. We do not know the truth as it is in Jesus 
— the truth which he reveals to make us free in- 
deed. 



314 c. E. B. 

I was talking with a Universalist to-day. He 
kept saying, "I think," "I believe/' "It seems 
reasonable to me," etc. I replied, "Do you 
know? Have you any certainty? May you not 
be mistaken after all? And, if you are, will it not 
be a fatal mistake ? Now, instead of thinking and 
believing as you profess to, I have absolute 
knowledge. I am sure that Christ is my Savior, 
and that heaven is my home. I have the witness 
of his Spirit. It is not a matter of probability, 
but of conscious assurance." That assurance I 
would not barter for all the wealth and wisdom of 
the world. 



THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PSALM. 

I was sick, yesterday, and unable to go to 
church. I turned, therefore, to this Psalm, be- 
ginning, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O 
Lord of hosts!" Many read this Psalm with in- 
terest, and with a general understanding of its 
spirit, who fail to appreciate it fully, because of 
some infelicities of translation. As I have been 
studying it, to-day, let me note down a few points 



THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PSALM. 3 I 5 

for such readers as are not supplied with Com- 
mentaries. The word translated "amiable" is 
one of peculiar force and beauty. It might be 
rendered, how "lovely and worthy of love." 
God's house is to the Christian not only the most 
attractive of all places on earth, but justly so; for 
it is there that God is specially honored, and that 
he makes special revelations of his grace. 

"The sparrow hath found a house," etc. 
Some suppose that this figure of the birds in the 
tabernacle refers to its neglected and ruined con- 
dition. But there is nothing in the context to 
justify such a supposition. Birds were not driven 
from the Jewish temple, but allowed to build 
their nests in it. The Psalmist thinks of them 
as safe and happy in God's sanctuary; as per- 
mitted by God to dwell there with their nest- 
lings about them. So would he dwell and rear 
his children. He, too, would nestle, like the 
birds, near the altar. He would have the home 
of his heart where the swallow and sparrow 
twitter for joy, for are not he and his offspring of 
more value in God's sight than many sparrows? 

"In whose heart are the ways of them." 
What does this mean? Omit the italics, which 



316 C. E. B. 

the translators added, and we read, "In whose 
heart the ways." The "ways" might be trans- 
lated channels; and then we get this idea: "In 
whose heart are the channels of thy grace." The 
believer's "strength" is in God. He opens his 
heart to receive all of that strength that God will 
give. Hence, he has such fullness of grace that 
when he passes through the valley of Baca, bit- 
terness, desolation, he makes it a well. The love 
and joy within so overflow that the dreariest spot 
becomes a garden of the Lord. 

And we learn from the seventh verse that the 
progressive strength and happiness of the Chris- 
tian depend upon his appearing "in Zion before 
God." The fountain is above, but it comes down 
through the sanctuary to the heart. As our 
water-pipes, in a great city, must be connected 
with the main, and through it with the reservoir, 
so our spirits must be connected with the great 
current of spiritual life that flows through the 
Church. Public worship is a duty and a privi- 
lege under the new dispensation, as under the old. 
Our churches have in them no altars -for incense 
or sacrifice, no ark or shekinah, no robed priests, 
no high-priest with a jeweled breastplate; yet 



THE EIGHTY-FOURTH PSALM. 317 

they are truly temples of God, and whoever waits 
upon him there in humility and faith will "go 
from strength to strength/ ' 

The marginal rendering of the tenth verse is 
literal, and very expressive: "I would choose 
rather to sit at the threshold of the house of God, 
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." Yes, 
happier he who can only reach the doorstep of 
the sanctuary, and thence look in and hear God's 
praises and join in his worship, than he whose 
home is in the tents of the wicked. 

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield." He 
both lights and guards us. Or perhaps the refer- 
ence is to the old pillar of cloud by day and fire 
by night in the wilderness. God's mercies are 
adapted to our varied wants. When we need 
light, he shines; when we need shade, he over- 
shadows. He gives glory. But, lest it dazzle 
and pain us with excessive brightness, he gives 
grace also. He tempers the beams of his majesty 
and his holiness with the soft and mellow radiance 
of his love. We do not know of a sweeter verse 
in the Bible than this — sun and shield, grace and 
glory. Truly and beautifully does it close with 



3 18 C. E. B. 

the words, "No good thing will be withheld from 
them that walk uprightly." 

"Uprightly." "Ah, yes," cries some one; "if 
we were upright, i. e. y perfect, of course God 
would bless us. But we are not perfect. How, 
then, can we take these promises as ours?" The 
writer thought of this objection, and added a 
verse to explain what he meant by upright. 
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee." It is 
the uprightness, not of innocency, not of perfect 
obedience, but of faith. It is the "looking unto 
Jesus" of which Paul writes. It is fixing the 
eyes, the thoughts, the affections on God, and 
thus pressing toward the mark. All the richest 
promises of God's word are based upon our trust- 
ing him as little children, and not upon our serv- 
ing him as strong workers, or fighting for him as 
brave soldiers. If we truly love him, we will, of 
course, both work and fight for him. But our 
salvation depends upon believing in him, and on 
this alone. 






" MY PEACE." 319 

"MY PEACE." 

Many readers of the Bible, I fear, do not appre- 
hend the full force of the pronoun "my," in John 
xiv. 27. It defines the peace that Jesus gives. 
It tells us not only that it is from him — his gift — 
but wherein it differs from what the world calls 
peace, and promises to give us. "My peace, " 
means that which the Savior himself enjoyed while 
on the earth; that which enabled him to sleep on 
a storm-tossed sea. The life of Jesus must have 
seemed to men a troubled and sad one. He was 
poor. He was homeless. He was rejected by 
his neighbors. Even his brothers and sisters did 
not believe on him. The rulers of his nation 
sought to slay him. His miracles were attributed 
to satanic power. He was called a glutton and a 
wine-bibber. He was betrayed, deserted, mocked, 
buffeted, scourged and crucified. Yet "the Man 
of Sorrows" was "the Prince of Peace." He had 
sources of comfort that the world knew not of. 
His great soul was like the ocean ; the storms on 
its surface could not affect its depths. In them 
there was ever the holy calm of a perfect faith in 
God. 



320 C. E. B. 

Now, Jesus does not propose to give us a better 
peace than he himself enjoyed. Nay, he can not, 
for that was the best possible. It was unaffected 
by circumstances. It sustained him in the sorest 
trials. It enabled him to triumph over death 
itself. Is it not enough for the disciple to be as 
his Lord? Do we want any other peace than 
that of Jesus, any better legacy than that he has 
left us in this promise, and which was all he had 
to leave? If not, then let us study the life of 
Jesus, and ask God to give us more of his Spirit. 
Let us not desire or pray for exemption from toil 
and trial, but for grace that will enable us to re- 
joice, as Paul did, in distresses and persecutions, 
for Jesus' sake. 



THE UMBRELLA SELLER. 

Yesterday we had one of the heaviest rains of 
the season. The water poured in torrents from 
the sky. I was obliged to go to the printing- 
office. As I turned from Market into Sansome 
Street I heard a man crying, * Umbrellas; nice, 
new umbrellas, only six bits apiece !" There he 



THE UMBRELLA SELLER. 32 I 

stood in the drenching rain, on the sidewalk 
that was covered with water, selling umbrellas. 
When I returned, an hour later, he was still 
there, shouting, as before, "Umbrellas, umbrel- 
las !" I could not help admiring the grit of the 
man. He did not stand*' in a doorway, or under 
an awning, and cry, "Come here and buy um- 
brellas," But he went out in the rain, under one 
of his umbrellas. He accosted every passer-by 
who was umbrellaless. He rushed from corner 
to corner, across the muddy streets. He ran 
along beside the men, who were hurrying on in 
the rain, urging them to buy. As I watched that 
man I thought, Well, he knows how to sell um- 
brellas, and he is bound to do it. He brings his 
umbrellas just where they are most needed. He 
exposes himself freely, in order to succeed in his 
business. May I not learn from him a lesson? 
May not that umbrella seller teach ministers and 
Christians how to work? It is easy, compara- 
tively, to stand in our churches and exhort men 
to repent and believe in Jesus. But a great many 
of those who need the exhortation are not there 
to hear it. And to those who are there we do 

not seem to be more than half in earnest. If we 
21 



322 C. E. B. 

went out after sinners, if we took the gospel to 
their homes, and even to their haunts of vice, we 
should reach scores where we now reach one. 
How many umbrellas would that man have sold 
if he had remained in his store ? People will not 
always go after even the material good things that 
they need. He who would be sure to sell to 
them must go after them when they are most 
conscious of their wants. And this truth is still 
more true in regard to spiritual necessities. Un- 
less we press upon men's attention in season and 
out of season, the salvation without which they 
must perish, few will be saved. 

Shall a vender of umbrellas, at six bits apiece, 
rebuke, by his earnestness and self-denial, those 
who have eternal life to offer to souls that are 
dead in sin? 



TRY WATERING. 

There is a class of persons in all communities 
that we are tempted to regard as hopeless. They 
are so selfish, so worldly, or so vicious, it seems 
as if gospel influences could not reach them. We 






TRY WATERING. 323 

say sadly there is nothing in their hearts to ap- 
peal to; every germ of sensibility seems to be 
dead. But we must not judge by appearances. 
We do not know what possibilities may slumber 
in the hardest heart, and what agencies of love 
may wake them into life. We dug an irrigat- 
ing ditch, last month, along a hillside where 
there was no soil — nothing but gravel. We 
thought that nothing had ever grown there or 
ever could. But, to-day, while our best fields 
are verdureless as Sahara itself, that ditch is bor- 
dered with a luxuriant growth. The water found 
seeds in the gravel bank, and quickened them. 
As I look at that long line of living green, I am 
rebuked for my unbelief. I am taught to regard 
no human spirit as hopeless. I am encouraged 
to believe that patient kindness will find germs in 
the most degraded, which may be quickened into 
newness of life. The great apostasy of our day 
is want of faith in the power of the gospel. We 
believe in learning and eloquence ; but not in the 
omnipotence of love. We do not realize that we 
dwell in those latter days when God will pour out 
his Spirit upon all flesh. We do not expect 
moral miracles — even life from spiritual death — 



324 C. E. B. 

when we go with the love of God in our hearts, 
to try to water the hearts around us that seem 
utterly carnal and depraved. Faithful and loving 
efforts to do good can not be in vain. If we will 
by such efforts open a channel to the hearts of 
the most helpless, the Holy Spirit will fill that 
channel with the water of life, until deserts re- 
joice, and blossom as the rose. This he has done 
— this he is able now to do — this he waits to do. 
He waits for us to give him, as it were, access to 
those who are perishing, in order that he may 
save them. 



THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 

Our Savior did not exaggerate. His figures 
were not hyperboles. When he called himself 
"The Light of the World," he meant that he was, 
to all who would receive him, a spiritual lumin- 
ary ; that he would light and warm and vivify the 
souls of men, as the sun lights and warms and 
vivifies the earth. If this assertion of the Divine 
One is true, why are there any cold, sad hearts? 
There can be but one reason — the want of faith. 






THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 325 

"He that believeth in me shall not abide in dark- 
ness." Light and faith, unbelief and darkness, 
are inseparable. No more surely does sunshine 
change night to day upon our globe, than trust- 
ing in Christ changes sorrow and fear to hope and 
joy in the human soul. 

Reader, did you ever sit down and think why 
this is and must be so ? What makes moral dark- 
ness? Is it not sin? Every cloud in our sky 
comes from the evil in our own hearts, or in the 
hearts of others. We all assent to this statement ; 
but do we realize it? Don't we sometimes half 
believe that our troubles and trials are arbitrary; 
that God sends them, or permits them to come, 
without any just cause? We know better; but 
we are tempted to forget, and it is well for us to 
try to trace these trials and troubles up to their 
fountain-heads. We can not do this in all cases; 
but we can in enough to satisfy us that sin is the 
one bitter and deadly thing — the source of all our 
sorrows. Then, that which delivers from sin is 
the panacea of the soul. And, so far as the pan- 
acea is applied, the curse is removed. 

Now look at Christ, the sinless sin-bearer, the 
mighty God, dying for men ; the risen and glori- 



326 C. E. B. 

fied Redeemer interceding for men. Remember 
that faith unites us with him, as a branch is united 
with the vine ; that faith clothes us with his right- 
eousness, and transforms us into his image. 
What do such statements and figures mean? Is 
it not that sin has no more dominion over us ? 
that we are not to walk under its damp shadows 
while we walk with the Son of God? that we are 
to walk in the light as he is in the light, because 
his blood cleanses us from all sin ? 

But you say: We are not cleansed from all sin; 
how, then, can we walk in the light? Look at 
yonder sky. It is not clear, and yet how beauti- 
ful! The sun gilds and burnishes the clouds. 
They reflect and refract his light, until the glory 
of heaven seems to come down to earth, and we 
can almost see, with our mortal eyes, the golden 
streets, the jasper walls, and the gates of pearl. 
Oh, light can transmute our mists and vapors into 
pavilions that angels might dwell in! And so 
does Christ brighten the sorrows of life ; so does 
he make even the darkness that lingers within us 
luminous with his love ! There can be no night 
on the earth while the sun is shining, though 
there may be many clouds in the sky. And 



THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 327 

there . can be no night in the soul while Christ 
abides in it, though that soul may be conscious of 
many imperfections, and may mourn daily over 
its shortcomings. The Divine Light will reveal 
its own holy beauty even amid the tears of peni- 
tence, as the sun kindles rainbows on the storm- 
clouds, making the vapors that would hide its 
beams multiply their glory seven-fold. 

This is the idea of Christ which we need to 
realize and to cherish. He is not a light to be 
enjoyed in the future — toward which we struggle 
through dark and rugged ways, as a traveler 
struggles toward that which shines from the win- 
dow of his far-off home. He is not a light to be 
enjoyed now and then — on the Sabbath — in sea- 
sons of quiet meditation or devotion ; but a light 
that we may walk in always — just as if we could 
follow the sun around the earth, and thus have 
perpetual day. But the natural eyes can not see 
this light. To enjoy it, we must walk by faith. 
We must believe that Christ is a great, omnipres- 
ent, omniscient, loving Savior, and that he is 
ours. Believing this, fully, we can no more 
doubt or fear, we can no more be troubled or 
anxious, than a man can stumble at noonday. 



328 C. E. B. 

Then, simple faith is the condition of peace, of 
joy, and of hope. With faith in the heart, we 
have Christ there ; we have the Sun of Righteous- 
ness there ; and spiritual gloom is as impossible in 
that trusting heart as in heaven itself. Heaven 
depends, for its blessedness, upon him who offers 
to abide in us: "The Lamb is the light of it." 
And if he brings into our hearts the celestial 
light, does he not bring as much of heaven as the 
heart can hold ? 

A great practical error is that we have here, 
and now, only the toils and trials of the Christian 
life; that all its joys are in the future. But 
though this life is a pilgrimage, and the way is 
through a wilderness, we need not go stumbling 
and sighing, and with heads bowed like the bul- 
rush. The wilderness is lighted by the love of 
God. His grace and glory stream down upon it 
from the Celestial City. They reveal to us the 
home to which we go, and the way by which we 
go ; they drive the wild beasts that would harm 
us to their dens ; they warm us with their vivify- 
ing beams; they cause flowers to bloom around 
us, and birds to sing above us. Should we be 






WHERE IS HE? 329 

sad, with the Celestial City in full view, and its 
light shining about us? 

This light our Savior calls, "the light of life. " 
And John says: "In him was life; and the life 
was the light of men." The sun warms the soil, 
and causes the seed to germinate; but plants 
wither in the sunshine, and its brightest rays fall 
on coffins and on graves. And a time is coming 
when "the sun shall be turned into darkness." 
But the Son of Righteousness abides forever. 
He kindles now in the heart a hope that is full of 
glory and eternal life; and he will expand that 
hope into a fruition of blessedness that will grow 
more and more blessed forever and ever. Then, 
lift up your heads, all ye sorrowing ones ! Look 
unto Jesus, for he is the true light — the light not 
of heaven only, but of this world; the pilgrim's 
light as well as the angel's; the light in which we 
all may walk and rejoice. 



WHERE IS HE? 

A father was in business in a distant city. 
He wanted his little son with him. He wrote to 



330 C. E. B. 

his wife to send him by the express agent. She 
obeyed, but with many tears and misgivings. 
The child might be lost or injured during the 
journey. His father might not meet him at the 
depot. She passed a sleepless night. Next 
morning a dispatch came from her husband. It 
said: ' 'Johnnie is with me." That was enough. 
She was satisfied. She did not know where 
Johnnie's new home was in the great city, or any 
particulars about it, or about the school he was to 
attend. But she knew he was with his father — 
the father who loved him dearly, the father who 
was wise as well as loving. She believed that the 
child with him would be safe and happy. 

When our friends die we feel like saying, with 
Job, "Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" 
To that anxious question the world with all its 
boasted science and philosophy can give no satis- 
factory answer. But in the Bible we have divine 
statements that ought to comfort us. They are 
brief, like that father's telegram. They tell us 
only one thing about our absent friends. But 
that is enough. If they were Christians here 
they are with Christ as soon as they die. 

Our Savior said to the penitent thief, ' To-day 



WHERE IS HE? 331 

thou shalt be with me in paradise." Where is 
paradise ? What kind of a place is it ? On these 
points we have no specific information, and we do 
not need any. If the believer is with his Lord, 
if the redeemed sinner is with his Redeemer, all 
is well. 

The message to the dying thief is Christ's mes- 
sage to every dying saint. We know this from 
our Savior's prayer (John xvii. 24): "Father, I 
will that they also whom thou hast given me be 
with me where I am, that the} r may behold my 
glory." We know this also from his promise 
(John xiv. 3): "I will come again and receive 
you unto myself, that where I am there ye may 
be also." We know it from the martyrdom of 
Stephen. He saw heaven open, and Christ 
standing at the right hand of God ; and he cried : 
"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Did not our 
Savior reveal himself to the dying believer on 
purpose to assure him that he was about to fulfill 
his promise? Would he mock him with such a 
vision, and tempt him to offer such a prayer, if 
he were not going to take him to himself — if he 
were going to send him away to purgatory, or to 
some intermediate place. 



332 C. E. B. 

Mark, in his account of the ascension, confirms 
the vision of Stephen. He says: "He [Christ] 
was received up into heaven, and sat on the right 
hand of God.'"* And John, at Patmos, saw Christ 
as a lamb that had been slain, in the midst of the 
Throne. Thus it is evident that our Savior is in 
heaven, and that he receives there, and has a 
place there for his people when they die. 

Paul believed that Christians go at once where 
Christ is. He writes to the Corinthians about 
being absent from the body and present with the 
Lord. (2 Corinthians iii. 8.) He writes to the 
Philippians that he had a desire to depart and be 
with Christ, and that for him to die would be 
gain. He would not have written so if he ex- 
pected to be sent when he died into some place 
of unconsciousness and repose. In that case, 
death would not have been gain. No; he ex- 
pected to go at once into that central place of 
light and love where Christ reveals himself, and 
where he has prepared mansions for them that 
love him. 

Then we know that our departed friends are 
welcomed by Christ to a home in heaven. Nay, 
that he comes and takes them to himself. He 



THE RAINBOW. 333 

sends back to the ear of faith the message, l They 
are with me." More than this we need not 
know; more than this we could not understand. 



THE RAINBOW. 

God is a great teacher. He has created some 
of the grandest and loveliest objects in nature to 
instruct us in spiritual things. We were gazing to- 
day upon a magnificent rainbow, one of the most 
perfect that we ever saw. We thought first of 
Noah, as he came out of the ark, and saw that 
seven-hued glory in the sky. It was to him a 
sign, God's signature to a promise. "No flood 
hereafter. Build and plant, for the earth shall 
never be drowned again. Fear not when the 
rain descends ; it shall only water the earth and 
not destroy it." The fact that the Great Creator 
thus pledged himself to his creatures showed 
such kind and thoughtful tenderness that it led 
them to feel: "God is not a mere Rain King, or 
a mere Judge and Avenger. No; he is a Father. 
He loves us. He wants us to confide in him." 



334 c. e. b. 

Thus the rainbow was a revealer of God's grace 
to men, and a teacher of the one lesson that they 
needed most of all to learn — the lesson of faith. 

But we could not help thinking of another rain- 
bow — one seen, as yet, by no mortal eyes but 
those of John, the beloved — the rainbow of the 
first Christian century, the rainbow of to-day, the 
rainbow of all time, the rainbow of eternity, the 
rainbow " round about the throne." (Revelation 
iv. 3.) This rainbow is not an arc or semicircle, 
like that of Noah; but a complete circle, sur- 
rounding the throne like a halo or a coronet. In 
its form it symbolizes the divine perfections. 
God in full-orbed power and glory manifests him- 
self in the work of redemption. God the Triune, 
Father, Son and Spirit, is interested and active in 
saving lost men. God's holiness, justice, truth 
and love blend in the gospel. How instructive 
and cheering the fact that the rainbow is "round 
about the throne;" that the symbol of God's 
power is completely enveloped by the symbol of 
his covenant love ! 

But why is the rainbow chosen to represent the 
gospel ? In it God pledges rest to the soul. The 
ark rested on Mt. Ararat ; the deluge was over, 



THE RAINBOW. 335 

and light shining on the retreating storm made a 
bow in the clouds. So when the sinner flees to 
Christ, redeeming love, shining on his tears of 
penitence, kindles the hope that is full of glory. 
The promise of Jesus is fulfilled: "Come unto 
me, and I will give you rest." No more tempest- 
tossed; no more anxious and afraid: " Being jus- 
tified by faith, we have peace with God; " peace, 
because his word is pledged: "He that cometh 
to me I will in no wise cast out; " "I will never 
leave you nor forsake you." 

But why is the rainbow round about the throne 
"in sight like unto an emerald?" Noah's rain- 
bow was of seven colors — this is green, the color 
of the grass upon the plains, of the foliage upon 
the trees — the color most grateful to the eye. Is 
there not a sweet lesson for us in this emerald- 
hued bow? The gospel is adapted to our weak- 
ness. It does not dazzle us with a glare of light, 
or distract us with all the colors of the material 
rainbow. No ; it arches over us softly. It soothes 
us with its familiar and pleasant green shading, 
amid the glare of jasper and sardonyx stone. 

And as the rainbow, the emerald rainbow, en- 
ables us to look upon the throne, lo ! in the midst 



336 c. e. b. 

of it "a Lamb as it had been slain." Yes, God's 
love for sinners not only surrounds his throne, but 
reigns upon it. The rainbow symbolizes the rest 
and safety which are pledged to the repenting sin- 
ner by all his attributes. But the Lamb slain 
shows that the sinner's Savior is God himself. 
The Pleader in the garden and the Sufferer on the 
cross wears the crown of universal dominion and 
wields the scepter of omnipotence. Oh, as we 
look within the rainbow, and behold the Lamb, 
we know that our salvation is as sure as infinite 
power and love can make it. 

Is it not well for us to study more these sym- 
bols? The Church in our day, though active and 
benevolent, is deficient in the consciousness of its 
personal relation to Christ. It is a great organi- 
zation, but it does not realize that its Head is in 
heaven, that its members are the body of Christ, 
that its life all comes from him. If we thought 
more of what Christ is doing for us now — that he is 
not a Savior in the past merely, but in the present 
also — that he is identified with his Church in all 
time as its Intercessor, as its High Priest, who has 
passed into the heavens — as the Lamb slain for 
it in the midst of the throne, we should have 



DAYS OF DARKNESS. 337 

more faith in him and more love for him; we 
should have more enthusiasm and joy in working 
for him. 



DAYS OF DARKNESS. 

The Preacher says (Ecclesiastes xi. 8), "If a 

man live many years, and rejoice in them all ; yet 

let him remember the days of darkness ; for they 

shall be many." If a man knew that his eyesight 

would last only a few months longer, that on a 

certain day in the future he would become blind, 

would not he try to see all that he could in the 

meantime, so that he might have pictures in the 

memory to gaze upon when the outer vision was 

closed? Would he not try to put his affairs in as 

good order as possible, so that they should not 

trouble and annoy him in the days of darkness? 

Very foolish would he be who failed to improve 

the brief opportunity for seeing and to provide 

for the time when he should be able to see no 

longer. But like this supposed case is that of 

every reader. No matter how successful and 

happy, there are days of darkness before him. 
22 



338 c. e. b. 

He can not expect uninterrupted prosperity. 
Disappointment is not only the common, it is the 
universal lot. Every one should make a wide 
margin for it in all his plans and operations. 

Banks and insurance companies provide a re- 
serve fund. Out of this they pay those losses 
which are sure to come from time to time. 
When the hoisting works of the Consolidated 
Virginia mine were burned, the company went 
right on paying dividends of a million dollars a 
month. It had accumulated a surplus during the 
period of its prosperity. A great cause of suffer- 
ing is that people when prosperous live too fast 
and spend too freely. They imagine that they 
are always going to do as well as they are now 
doing, if not better. They make no provision for 
reverses. They lay in no coal for the winter, no 
oil for its long nights. Hence, when the time of 
sunshine and warmth is gone, they are cold and 
desolate. Then they complain of their ill-luck, 
when the blame belongs to their ill-management. 
God gives to all his children enough of the good 
things of this life for their real and reasonable 
wants. But many do not take care of what he 
gives them. They do not lay up in the years of 



DAYS OF DARKNESS. 339 

plenty for the years of famine. They are like a 
farmer who should let his crops lie out of doors 
instead of garnering them, and then complain of 
poverty when the storms of winter had spoiled 
the plenty that his fields produced. 

In spiritual as in temporal affairs dark days will 
come. We need them and we ought to prepare 
for them. The best preparation is studying 
God's word, memorizing and meditating upon his 
promises. That was a dark time in our Savior's 
earthly life when he was led into the wilderness 
to be tempted of the devil. But he was ready 
for it. And his quotations of Scripture lighted 
up the darkness and drove away the tempter, as 
sunlight drives moles and bats to their hiding- 
places. That was a dark time when the Scottish 
Confessor's Bible was taken from him and burned. 
But he had light still that his persecutors could 
not quench. "You can not burn," he cried, ^Ihe 
chapters that I have committed to memory." 



340 c. E. B. 

THREE RULES. 

Every man's experience ought to be worth 
something. His failures ought to help others to 
succeed. They at least may buoy out one shallow 
channel so that later navigators can avoid it. I 
am tempted, to-day, to give a little advice to my 
younger readers — advice that would have helped 
me years ago, if I had received and heeded it. I 
will condense the advice into three rules. 

i. Never attempt to do more than one thing at 
a time. Have a single, definite object, and bend 
all your energies upon it. Some men succeed in 
more than one pursuit. There are universal 
geniuses and jacks of all trades. But even they 
might do far better in one thing than they have 
done in the many. Our minds are too finite and 
our lives too short for us to master every science 
and become skillful in every art. Each should, 
therefore, early select his special sphere. If you 
are called to preach the gospel, make preaching 
your business, study preaching all day, dream of 
preaching all night, practice preaching whenever 
you have an opportunity. Don't dabble in other 
things. If you have a fondness for literature or 



THREE RULES. 341 

for science indulge in it only so far as you can 
gather material to be used in preaching. It is 
enough for a man to be a great and useful 
preacher of the gospel. He ought to be satisfied 
with this, and not try, at the same time, to get a 
reputation as a lecturer, or author, or musician. 
I never read of one of our great preachers on a 
lecturing tour that I don't feel as if he were de- 
grading his high calling. He is an angel of the 
Church, an ambassador of Christ, and what busi- 
ness has he to go about tickling people's ears at 
a dollar a head? If you are not called to preach, 
but to make shoes or to raise potatoes and corn, 
honor your calling by a thorough study of and 
devotion to it. Say, in regard to shoemaking or 
farming, "This one thing I do." Our land is full 
of men who know a little about everything, and 
not very much about anything. They glory in the 
fact that they can turn their hands to a great va- 
riety of trades if necessary. But such men seldom 
succeed. Their versatility of talent tempts them 
to frequent changes, and hence of them it is gen- 
erally written: "Unstable as water, thou shalt 
not excel." 

The few men on this coast who have achieved 



342 C. E. B. 

reputation, or accumulated wealth, are those who 
started out to do one thing and stuck to it. The 
multitudes that have failed, and are drifting to 
and fro like sea-weed, are those who are too smart 
(in their own estimation) to confine themselves to 
a single business or life work. They wanted to 
be miners and merchants and bankers and politi- 
cians and manufacturers and operators in real es- 
tate, etc., all at the same time, and the result is 
that they are bankrupts and vagabonds. 

2. The second rule is really implied in the first. 
It is : Do thoroughly whatever you attempt to do. 
Choose a business in which you can get up some 
enthusiasm; which you consider worthy of your 
best powers and efforts, and then determine to be 
the most skillful and successful man of your gen- 
eration in that business. If your ambition rises 
no higher than to be a bootblack determine to 
give your customers such a shine as they can get 
nowhere else. There is a sad want of thorough- 
ness among our artisans and professional men. 
They consider their trade or profession as merely 
the means by which they are to m .ke a living. 
They only give enough attention to it to insure 
this result. They have no pride in it, no ambi- 



THREE RULES. 343 

tion to excel in it. And hence they are mere 
plodders all their days. They accomplish noth- 
ing that specially benefits the world or that the 
world will care to remember. They leave behind 
them no ' 'footsteps on the sands of time. " 

3. The third rule, and not the least important, 
is: Don't fret and worry about what you can't 
do. We can not all be great scholars or orators 
or millionaires. It is not best that we should be. 
The smaller stones are as useful in a building as 
the larger ones. God wants in this world a great 
many average men and women, and if we fill our 
own sphere, we are more faithful servants than if 
we tried to fill, or at least get into, somebody 
else's. Not a few lives that might be both useful 
and happy are worse than wasted, because the 
people want to be what God never meant them to 
be. Ambition is right and noble within certain 
limits. But to tell any boy in the land that he 
may be President of the United States if he will, 
is only fitting him to be discontented in the posi- 
tion that he will be likely to secure. 



344 c. e. b. 

"HAVING A GOOD TIME." 

A good many think that the object of living is 
to have a good time. But I do not find this ideal 
in the lives recorded in the Bible. Not one of 
the holy men or women we read of there had 
what men of the world would call a good time. 
Let us glance at some of the biographies of those 
whose example is given for our imitation. 

Abraham, the father of the faithful, was a 
homeless wanderer all his days. He was childless 
until he was a hundredTyears old. Moses spent 
forty years of his life as a shepherd in the desert 
of Sinai. Even the sheep he tended belonged to 
his father-in-law. Could those have been happy 
years for one brought up in a palace and learned 
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians? And after 
Moses became the leader of his people from 
bondage, how constantly and bitterly was he 
troubled with their follies and their murmurings. 
David, the man after God's own heart, taken 
from the sheepfold to be king over Israel, was 
one of the most talented and successful men of 
his own or any age ; yet for years he was hunted 
by Saul, as a partridge in the wilderness. And 









"HAVING A GOOD TIME. 345 

after he was firmly seated on the throne, he had 
great and sore trouble; so that he cried out in 
the midst of his palace, "Oh, that I had wings 
like a dove ! for then would I fly away, and be at 
rest." Elijah was the most eminent of the proph- 
ets. He brought fire and rain from heaven, yet 
he sat down under a juniper-tree and wished that 
he might die. 

Our Savior did not have a good time while he 
lived on the earth, but was a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief. We read that he sighed, 
that he wept, that he was in an agony of grief, 
but never that he smiled. His disciples were 
scourged, stoned, imprisoned. They had to flee 
from city to city. Many of them suffered mar- 
tyrdom. None of them had much of what the 
world calls prosperity, or enjoyed much of what 
it calls pleasure. And so, too, with the most 
eminent saints in later ages. Luther's life was 
full of care, anxiety and peril. He found that 
trying to reform the world waked up all its hos- 
tility and scorn. It was stirring a nest of vipers 
to hiss and sting. Read the biographies of John 
Calvin, of John Knox, of Henry Martyn, of 
Adoniram Judson. They all teach the same 



346 c. e. b. 

truth — that God's faithful ones do not receive 
their portion in this life. 

Look around you at the men and women that 
seem to you most pious, and hence most dear to 
God. Does he give them a good time? Are 
not many of them poor, sick, bereaved of their 
children, disappointed in worldly matters, over- 
shadowed by godless neighbors who flourish like 
the green bay-tree? Oh, reader, our heavenly 
Father does not promise us what the sensualist 
calls a good time, in this world. But he does 
promise to be with us in trouble. He does prom- 
ise that we shall never be tempted above what we 
are able to bear. And, better than all, he prom- 
ises that these light afflictions shall work out for 
us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of 
glory. 

There is something for us, in this life, far more 
important than having a good time. It is finish- 
ing the work God has for us to do. This work 
may require self-denial. It may involve the sac- 
rifice of the right hand, or of the right eye ; but 
as toil-worn laborers, or even as martyrs for the 
true, and the right, we shall be happier than he 
who seeks ease and worldly pleasure. We shall 



44 CONSIDER THE LILIES." 347 

enjoy what he can never have — peace of con- 
science, and a hope full of glory and eternal life. 
The most blighting error that a Christian can 
cherish is that of having a good time, in the 
worldly sense. It will lead him into many temp- 
tations. It will dim his joy in the Lord. It will 
keep him like a fish in a shallow pool, with just 
religion enough to make him wretched. Let us 
work for God and humanity instead of seeking 
present ease and pleasure. And if we have not a 
good time, we shall have, what will be far better, 
a glorious and blessed immortality. 



"CONSIDER THE LILIES." 

The callas are magnificent on this coast. As I 
looked at them to-day I thought of the Savior's 
exhortation. They are not to be admired merely, 
but considered. They are to instruct as well as 
to please. 

Their first lesson is a rebuke of that covert 
atheism which prates about the laws of nature. 
Christ said: "If God so clothe the grass of the 



348 c. e. b. 

field." He ascribes all vegetable growth to the 
direct power and control of the great Creator. 
The universe is not wound up like a watch, to 
run its appointed time. It is rather a factory 
where God works, where he is omnipresent in all 
the infinitude of his energy and skill. Whenever 
you see a new picture you know that somebody 
has been at work ; that it represents not only an 
ideal, but an operation. The artist may have 
made that picture with a pencil, or he may have 
made it in a printing-house with engraved plates 
and a press. Yet in the latter case the plates and 
the press did not make the picture, but the man 
who used them. If he constructed the press and 
engraved the plates to facilitate his work — to 
multiply pictures faster than he could with the 
pencil — yet every picture is as really his. So 
every flower that blooms shows the handiwork of 
God. It is just like the flowers that bloomed on 
that tree or grew from that kind of seed last year. 
It is a fresh type of the archetype. But the 
archetype did not make it — the laws of nature 
did not make it any more than the machinery in 
a printing-office makes books and papers. As 
that machinery would stop or go wrong or tear 



" CONSIDER THE LILIES. 349 

itself to pieces if left to itself — as it requires, in 
order to work harmoniously and successfully, the 
constant supervision of intelligent minds in every 
department — so nature requires the ceaseless 
omnipresence of God. And the harmony and 
efficiency with which the laws of nature work 
shows that the living Spirit is in all the wheels. 

But why does God make flowers? They do 
not feed the hungry or clothe the naked. Some 
one has said, almost paradoxically, that their 
chief value and charm is their inutility. They ad- 
dress our higher nature ; they cultivate and grati- 
fy our love of beauty. And thus they show how 
wisely God loves us — how anxious he is to make 
us truly happy. A God who was merely just 
would sustain the beings that he had created. 
He would give them food. But only a good Be- 
ing would surround them with so many objects to 
quicken the intellect and to gladden the heart. 
Flowers do not nourish the body, but the soul. 
They enrich it with thoughts of purity and with 
feelings of gratitude and praise. They confirm its 
faith in him whom the Bible declares to be love. 

But how does God make flowers? Not as he 
makes gold and gems — perfect at once and once 



350 C E. B. 

for all. He causes them to grow from seeds or 
from bulbs. And where does he teach us to 
plant the bulb of the pure white calla? Not in the 
snow — not in the drifted sand — but in the miry 
earth. In darkness and dampness the roots must 
abide in order that the pearly petals may be 
formed. And does not our heavenly Father 
treat his saints as he treats the lilies? They who 
are to shine in white robes do not grow in the 
palaces or high places of the earth, but in ob- 
scurity and poverty, and sometimes in suffering 
and contempt. As God's sunshine, penetrating 
the black and oozy soil, develops the green stem 
and the glorious flower, so his grace, entering the 
humble and contrite heart, brings out of it angelic 
purity and beauty. It is not certain that the 
lilies on which our Savior looked, when he said 
"consider," were white. But this calla is, and 
this fact leads me to say white is not the emblem 
in the Bible of innocency, but of perfection ; for 
white is not a simple color, but the harmonious 
blending of them all. The solar spectrum shows 
this. Hence he who would walk in white must 
not try to be a harmless nonentity — to cultivate 
an insipid goodishness. He must develop, with 






"consider the lilies. 351 

God's help, all his powers, all his passions even, 
but in such harmony and proportion that his 
character shall be a circle of which love' to God is 
the center and love to man the circumference. 
The only true purity is that which comes from 
the full working of all our faculties under the uni- 
fying power of the gospel of Christ. 

The lilies rebuke our impatience. They grow. 
There is first a green shoot. Slowly it increases. 
Gradually leaf-buds appear and expand. Last of 
all come flower-buds, and they are a long time 
maturing. So is it with God's grace in our 
hearts. Its earliest influences are sweet and full 
of promise. But its work will not be finished 
until w r e die. The full blessedness of the new life 
will not be experienced or its true beauty seen on 
this side of the grave. To us, until the last hour 
of earth, will come the exhortation, "Grow in 
grace." Patiently, then, as we cultivate the 
flowers in our gardens, let us cultivate the love of 
God in our hearts. That love will bloom here- 
after into a crown of life. 

Many stories are told of what flowers have 
done to teach and to save men. Mungo Park, 
when he became exhausted and discouraged in 



353 C. E. B. 

the desert, saw a little flower that grew in the 
sand, and he thought, God is here. That 
thought gave him fresh courage and saved his 
life. Picciola, despairing in his dungeon, saw a 
flower come up through a niche in the floor. It 
taught him to hope in God. Napoleon Buona- 
parte put an atheist named Charney into prison. 
A little flower growing in the prison-yard at- 
tracted his attention. He watched it. He culti- 
vated it. It set him thinking: "How did it 
come here?" Considering that flower led him to 
faith in God. The Empress Josephine heard of 
the prisoner and his flower. With a woman's in- 
tuition she saw that one who loved a little flower 
so well could not be a bad man, and she per- 
suaded the Emperor to pardon him. He came 
out of prison wiser and happier than when he 
entered it. His teacher and deliverer was a sim- 
ple flower. 

Our Savior refers to the lilies to show us that 
God, who cares for things so frail, will not fail to 
take care of us. We need not be anxious and 
worried about what we shall eat or wear. We 
are the children of Providence, and if we do the 
duty of to-day we may trust in infinite wisdom 



PARASITES. 353 

and love for to-morrow. How obvious this les- 
son, and yet how hard it is for us to learn it ! 



PARASITES. 

This word is Greek. It means literally one 
who eats with another — the guest at a feast. But 
it was early applied to that class of guests who 
manage, by flattery and fawning, to live at other 
people's expense. The Romans adopted it, and 
hence Plautus says: "Parasites are like mice — 
they eat the food that belongs to somebody else." 

Modern science has applied the word to vege- 
tables and animals that attach themselves to other 
plants or to other animals, and live upon them as 
the human parasite lives upon his host. These 
parasites are almost innumerable. The micro- 
scope is daily revealing new ones. There are 
three classes of them: (i) Vegetable parasites, 
that fasten upon plants or trees ; (2) animal para- 
sites, that feed upon vegetables, shrubbery and 
trees, and (3) animal parasites, that attach them- 
selves to other animals. Of the first class, the 
2 3 



354 c. e. b. 

mistletoe and the oak are a familiar illustration ; 
to the second belong all the varieties of tree- 
borers and plant-lice, and to the third the ichneu- 
mon fly, that takes possession of the caterpillar, 
and all the blood-sucking insects that prey upon 
man and beast. 

A few parasites may be useful. The vine 
which produces the vanilla bean is said to be a 
parasite. But the almost universal rule is that 
parasites are both useless and destructive. They 
attack plants or animals more valuable than 
themselves ; they feed upon the sap or the blood ; 
they exhaust the vitality of that upon which they 
fasten in order to sustain their own ; and then 
they do no good in the world ; they bear no fruit ; 
they furnish no food; they are a pest in the 
garden, the orchard, the house — everywhere. 

There is a mystery about the existence of these 
parasites. Why should the wise and good Crea- 
tor make insects to destroy our trees and vines, 
and to annoy us as gnats and mosquitos do? I 
do not believe that there were parasites in Eden. 
I accept of them as one of the results of the fall; 
as one of the punishments of sin ; as one of the 
elements of trial and discipline in our probation- 



PARASITES. 355 

ary state. What can be more annoying than 
myriads of microscopic foes? What can task 
more severely our vigilance? What can test 
more insidiously our faith? 

But I think we can learn an important lesson 
in regard to our growth in grace from these para- 
sites. If we would be wise and strong, spirit- 
ually, we must not root ourselves into anybody 
else's life, but in the truth and in God. The tend- 
ency of human nature is to parasitism. In some 
of the most amiable people this tendency is es- 
pecially strong. They love and admire their 
minister, or some popular Christian writer. They 
fasten themselves upon the man or upon the book 
for spiritual food. They take the truth at second 
hand: They believe it and enjoy it, not because 
God reveals it in the Bible, but because their fa- 
vorite minister preaches it, or their favorite author 
teaches it. 

Parasitism appeared early in the Christian 
Church. Paul rebuked it sharply in his First 
Epistle to the Corinthians: ' 'Every one of you 
saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of 
Cephas, and I of Christ. " This he declares is 
carnal; and he tells them not to glory in men, 



356 c. e. b. 

for they are Christ's. They are to live in him as 
a tree in the soil, and not upon some other tree. 

Able and eloquent preachers attach their hear- 
ers to themselves. They need a great deal of 
wisdom and of grace to keep their congregations 
from parasitism. But wherever the life of a 
church comes to depend upon the life and la- 
bors of any man, no matter how good, there is 
danger — danger both to the minister and the 
church. Whoever comes between a human soul 
and its Savior, whoever becomes such an agent of 
instruction and comfort to that soul that it does 
not want to receive divine truth from any other 
lips, he has blighted the true life of the soul ; he 
has turned its affections and hopes from the Cre- 
ator to the creature. And if he has done this 
consciously — if he has sought popularity, or even 
affection, for his own sake, fearful is his respon- 
sibility. 

A young pastor succeeded one who had been 
very popular. He sought out the members who 
did not come to church. Finding one of these 
in a home in the suburbs, he said to her: "Are 
you not a member of the Presbyterian Church?" 
"Well," she replied, "I joined Mr. A. last win- 



THAT CLOUD. 357 

ter, but now he's gone, and I don't know who I 
belong to." Mr. A. was, no doubt, sincere and 
earnest. He meant to bring that woman to 
Christ. He thought that he had done so, instru- 
mentally. But he had only drawn her to himself. 
She admired his preaching, and so she joined his 
church. When he went away she was like the 
mistletoe torn from the oak. Christ was not her 
life, but the eloquent minister whom she loved to 
hear. 

This spirit of parasitism is as insidious as it is 
destructive. We must study it, as the micro- 
scopist studies the scale-bug; and if we find that 
we are cherishing it ourselves, or tempting others 
to cherish it, we must pray earnestly for help. 



THAT CLOUD. 

The evening was beautiful. The full moon 
shone in a cloudless sky. We said : To-morrow 
will be a fine day, and we planned how we should 
enjoy it. But in the morning a black cloud cov- 
ered the blue arch, and hid the sun. A misty 



35 8 c - E - B - 

rain filled the air. The outlook from our win- 
dows was so gloomy we knew that our plans 
must be abandoned. We were disappointed. 
We were tempted to murmur at that cloud. 
Why did God send it on that morning of all the 
mornings in the year? But that cloud was full of 
moisture for the thirsty earth. It poured out 
wealth upon it greater than any miner ever dug 
out of its bosom. Soon, where its rain-drops fell, 
the ground was covered with emeralds and with 
living green. And on the fresh herbage fed innu- 
merable flocks and herds. Then those rain-drops 
refreshed the drooping grain, and caused it to 
bring forth golden kernels for the nourishment of 
man. They stole to the rootlets of the trees, 
and through them went up into the trunks and 
branches, rounding out the ruddy apple, the ro- 
seate peach, the golden nectarine. Some of the 
blessed influences of that cloud appeared early; 
some were not revealed for months. The treas- 
ures it embosomed went into the earth, and fed 
the springs that sent streams through the valleys 
and across the plains. Men and beasts all sum- 
mer long drank water from that cloud, out of the 
wells and the rivers. We, who murmured that 



THAT CLOUD. 359 

dark morning, were both foolish and ungrateful. 
God, in disappointing us, was both wise and 
good. 

But other clouds have come over some of our 
hearts and homes; clouds that have darkened our 
worldly prospects, that have disappointed us in 
our life-plans ; clouds of financial embarrassment, 
of sickness, of bereavement. Have we murmured 
at those clouds ? Or have we had faith in them 
as God's messengers of love ? If our lives were 
all sunshine, our spiritual graces would wither 
and shrivel. Moisture is necessary for their 
growth ; but moisture comes from clouds. Rainy 
days are always dark days. We must have ex- 
periences of disappointment and sorrow in this 
world, and their full fruition we shall receive only 
in the world to come. Then, as we look back 
upon the way in which the Lord has led us, we 
shall bless and praise him more for the clouds 
than for the sunshine. We shall see that when 
he made the clouds his chariot he brought us the 
most royal of his gifts. 



360 C. E. B. 

THE MASSES OR THE FAMILY. 

A great deal is said and written in these days 
about reaching the masses, attracting the masses, 
preaching to the masses, etc. Yet the masses 
don't seem to be reached and attracted to any- 
great extent. Is it not possible that in this effort 
we are worldly-wise instead of seeking the wis- 
dom that comes from above ? I am familiar with 
two earnest experiments by able men in building 
up churches. One of them thought the great de- 
sideratum was to get the floating population to 
hear the gospel. He secured the erection of a 
large and commodious free church in a central 
locality. He had good music and preached elo- 
quent sermons. Crowds came. They listened. 
They admired. They were glad to have such a 
pleasant place to go to without any assessment or 
pew rent. They put money on collection plates 
when convenient. And the aggregate of volun- 
tary contributions was nearly enough to pay ex- 
penses. A few wealthy Christians made up what 
was deficient from time to time. This experi- 
ment seemed to be a great success. But some- 
how or other it began to drag after a year or two. 



Tim MASSES OR THE FAMILY. 36 1 

The novelty wore off. The church was not thor- 
oughly organized, unified and trained. The effort 
of the minister and others interested was to sus- 
tain the congregation, to bring the masses to hear 
the gospel, rather than to bring them individually 
to Christ. At least the temptation was very 
strong in this direction. That church has been 
closed for months. We hope that it will be 
opened again, and that another effort will be 
made to gather a congregation there and to com- 
pact it into a living Church of Christ. One of 
the leading spirits in the enterprise said to me our 
error was in trying to get the masses instead of 
trying to get families. 

In the other case referred to, the minister and 
elders labored faithfully from house to house. 
They tried to get the children into the Sabbath- 
school, and both parents and children to attend 
church on the Sabbath and prayer-meetings dur- 
ing the week. They did not labor to attract a 
great congregration, for they had only a small 
and plain house of worship, but they tried to 
bring all they could reach to Christ, and to at- 
tach them as households to the church. What is 
the result : Starting with less than twenty mem- 



362 C. E. B. 

bers, they have, in about two years, a member- 
ship of nearly two hundred, of whom two-thirds 
have been added on profession of their faith. 
The house is full every Sabbath, the prayer-meet- 
ings are well attended, and at every communion 
parents and children are coming out on the Lord's 
side. These brethren labor not for the masses in 
a vague and general way, but for the families of 
the masses, for the households that are outside of 
Christian influences. They go among the poor, 
the careless, the skeptical; and by patient, per- 
sistent, loving, prayerful effort bring them to 
Christ. Is not this God's way for reaching the 
masses? It involves much personal labor. It is 
not as easy as to get up music and sermons that 
will attract a crowd. But it is more practical and 
more permanent in its results. 



A LAND OF HOMES. 

When God gave his people possession of their 
promised land, he divided it by lot among their 
families. livery family had its inheritance, its 
home. And these houses could not be alienated 



A LAND OF HOMES. 363 

for more than forty-nine years. Every fiftieth 
year was a year of jubilee. Then every man re- 
turned to his possession. The father might 
squander his patrimony and die poor. But his 
son or grandson would receive it back again when 
the trumpet was blown, "proclaiming liberty 
throughout all the land to all the inhabitants 
thereof. " (Leviticus xxv. 10.) In this arrange- 
ment God has revealed to us his ideal of social 
life ; a community of families each of which has 
its home. Not a community of landlords and 
tenants, of masters and servants, of barons and 
serfs, but of freeholders. This arrangement pro- 
duces a true equality of condition. It gives per- 
manency to population. It interests all in local 
improvements. It cultivates a spirit of mutual 
sympathy and co-operation. The happiest and 
most prosperous people have been those that 
have lived by cultivating the earth, each family 
owning its little farm. It was once so in New 
England, and then she raised her best crop of 
men. For nowhere do the boys grow up so 
well as in a home that they are to inherit. No- 
where are such habits of industry and thrift culti- 
vated as where the father tills his own acres with 



364 C. E. B. 

his own hands. His children are taught that 
manual labor is honorable. They are interested 
in the home work because the home is to remain 
in the family, and every improvement in it will 
increase the comfort of those they love. 

Then, the Communists are right in their theory, 
that the land should be more equally divided. 
They are right in opposing the concentration of 
great estates in a few hands, compelling the ma- 
jority of the people to be landless, and dependent 
on others for the privilege of earning their daily 
bread. But they are wrong, radically w T rong, in 
the means by which they would realize their 
ideal. They say: Divide by law or by force; 
give every man his share of the soil; and if the 
more thrifty and industrious should, ten or 
twenty years hence, get the shares of the lazy 
and improvident, why, then, divide again. Who 
would try to accumulate property under such 
circumstances? Who would care to improve his 
patrimony? Who would care to earn more than 
enough for his present wants? Who would not 
say: Let us eat, and drink, for to-morrow we 
divide f 

But though these poor, half-starved, half-crazed 



A LAND OF HOMES. 365 

men say many wild and wicked things, we ought 
not to ignore the growing evil to which they call 
our attention. We ought to inquire: Is there not 
a wise, a practical and a Christian way of securing 
for every family a home? God, when he estab- 
lished the Christian Church, did not require a dis- 
tribution of property by lot, as in the case of the 
Hebrews. But he breathed into the hearts of 
his people the spirit of a noble Communism — the 
Communism of love. This led them to give to 
every man according to his need. This spirit per- 
vading society now would accomplish all that the 
Communists contend for, and yet not paralyze 
the energies of the most enterprising and ambi- 
tious. For no motive is so stimulating as benev- 
olence. No men work so hard, or are so happy 
in their work, as those who mean to use their 
earnings in doing good. And, on the other 
hand, what a poor man earns, improving the op- 
portunity that his rich neighbor gives him, is 
worth to him tenfold more than a donation of the 
same market value. 

This, then, is the Christian idea of Commu- 
nism. It recognizes fully every vested right. If a 
man owns ten thousand acres legally, to interfere 



366 c. e. b. 

with his possession is trespass ; to try to deprive 
him of a single acre is robbery. Yet Christianity 
says to that wealthy land-owner: These homeless 
men around you are brethren. They ought not 
to be mere hirelings and dependents. They 
would be worth a great deal more to society if 
they could be freeholders. They would cultivate 
the soil better if they owned it. Divide your es- 
tate, or at least a part of it, into small farms. 
Say to your tenants : Take these farms and pay 
me so much a year for so many years, and you 
shall have a title in fee, and thus secure a perma- 
nent home for yourself and children. What a 
stimulus such an offer would be to every man who 
was fit to have a home ! 

And while urging the rich to help the poor in 
the best way — to help them help themselves, 
Christianity says to the landless man: God has 
given you health and strength ; be industrious 
and economical ; earn all that you can and take 
care of what you earn ; be willing to make present 
sacrifices for the future good of yourself and your 
family; and, with God's blessing, you will be 
able to secure you a home. Not a few of the 
men who complain because they have no land of 



A LAND OF HOMES. 367 

their own have squandered enough to buy a small 
farm. He who drinks his three glasses of beer a 
day and smokes several dollars' worth of cigars 
every week has no right to grumble if he finds 
himself poor when times grow hard. He has 
acted on the principle that he has nothing to do 
with the future, that he is a sort of animal, made 
to enjoy life as it passes. With such men when 
they grumble we have no sympathy. They de- 
serve to suffer a little for their improvidence. 
But there are thousands of hard-working, thrifty 
men who have not succeeded, after years of toil, 
in planting themselves and their families on a spot 
of earth that they can call their own. For 
such men we have a great deal of sympathy. 
When they say that society is so organized that 
they have not a fair chance ; that the land is full 
of monopolies ; that capital often oppresses labor 
instead of helping it, we think that they are more 
than half right, and that those who regard them- 
selves as belonging to the higher classes ought to 
look at this matter — ought to ask themselves: 
Am not I my brother's keeper? And should I 
not help him to win a portion of the inheritance 
which the common Father has given to all his 



368 c. e. b. 

children? He wants all men to have homes on 
earth as well as homes in heaven. His ideal 
for a free land is that it be a land of homes. 
But he will not do again what he did in the case 
of the Hebrews, He will bring about social 
changes by moral means; by leading men to see 
how blighting is this great inequality of condi- 
tions, and by inspiring them with the spirit of 
brotherhood. We can not deal with this Com- 
munistic movement as they do in Germany. We 
must meet it with the weapons of reason and of 
love. We must try to satisfy its just demands, 
and persuade it to abandon those that are unjust. 
Let pulpit and press apply Christ's golden rule to 
both rich and poor, teaching them that their 
rights and interests are mutual and not antagonist- 
ic, and a public sentiment will grow up, stronger 
than law, that will gradually remedy the evil of 
this social inequality. 



THE AVERAGE MINISTER. 

He is not very popular nowadays. The larger 
churches bid high for men whose gifts and culture 



THE AVERAGE MINISTER. 369 

are above the average. The smaller churches, 
just because they are small, want eloquent 
preachers to build them up. And the average 
churches in size and financial ability are ambi- 
tious. Each occupies a field that is prospectively 
important. Each wants and hopes to become a 
first-class church; and how can it unless it secures 
a first-class minister? Thus there seems to be no 
place for men of ordinary ability. The demand 
on all sides is for the extraordinary. Good, fair 
preachers are endured because there are not 
enough of the more popular sort to go around. 
But those who endure them are often restless, 
and looking in all directions for some stray meteor 
or comet. 

Now, a few moments' thought will show the 
folly of this state of things. Why are John Hall 
and T. D. Talmage and Howard Crosby and a 
score or two of such men so popular as preachers? 
Is it not because God has endowed them more 
amply for their work than he has the rest of us? 
If all of us were as eloquent as those few and emi- 
nent preachers they would be only average 
preachers. And if the standard of pulpit ability 
should be lowered so that we who are now rated 
24 



370 c. E. B. 

as but common preachers should be above it, we 
would be the eloquent and popular men. It is 
evident, therefore, that the average preacher is 
simply the style of man that God has chosen for 
his Church in these times. He may not be just 
like the average preacher of the past or of the 
future, but he is the divinely endowed and com- 
missioned ambassador of to-day. As such he is 
God's gift to his Church, for which she should be 
thankful. 

At least ninety-five per cent, of our churches 
must be supplied by average preachers if at all 
There are a few positions of special responsibility 
for which God has raised up a small percentage 
of eloquent men. We rejoice in this. We want 
those men to be where they can be most useful. 
But now if some average church insists upon hav- 
ing one of those men and succeeds in securing 
him, what is the result? It can not keep him 
long, for there are larger and more important 
churches that will want him. And when he goes 
away the people will not be satisfied with com- 
mon preaching, the congregations will run down 
and there will be a sad reaction. Better for the 
average church to call the average minister and to 



THE AVERAGE MINISTER. 37 I 

esteem him very highly in love for his work's 
sake, than to try to get one above the average 
and not to be able to keep him. 

The highly gifted and cultured men in the 
Church are doing a noble work for Christ. We 
bless God for them. But the most of the work 
must be done by average men. They must care 
for all but a few of the most prominent churches. 
They must carry the gospel into the newer States 
and Territories. They must be the foreign mis- 
sionaries. Of the 26,000 added on examination 
last year probably 24,000 were converted under 
the ministry of average men. What right have 
we to depreciate those whose labors God ap- 
proves, and by whom he has chosen to build up 
his Church? 

The average preacher is tempted sometimes to 
envy his more popular brethren. But why 
should he? If he is using faithfully the talents 
that God has given him and filling well the 
sphere in which God has placed him, is it not 
enough ? Suppose that Venus and Mars should 
refuse to shine because they were not as large as 
Jupiter! The greater our endowments the 
greater our responsibilities. And our reward 



372 C. E. B. 

will not depend on the popularity of our work 
among men, but upon its fidelity in the sight of 
God. I believe that thousands who are rated as 
but average ministers here, will outshine in 
heaven some of the brilliant preachers whom 
everybody admires. One of the most insidious 
and fatal snares which Satan sets for the feet of a 
young minister is the suggestion to build up a 
reputation — to get to be known in the Church as 
specially promising, so as to be sought for by 
large and rich churches. The young man thinks 
that his ambition is holy. He wants to secure 
and fill as wide a sphere of usefulness as possible. 
But the trouble is that he measures his usefulness 
by his popularity, and that is a deceptive stand- 
ard. Paul was not a popular preacher, yet he 
was eminently successful in establishing and edi- 
fying churches. And this great apostle, in his 
letter to Timothy, tells him to commit the work 
of the ministry to "faithful men" — not learned 
and eloquent, but faithful. 

There is no class of men for whom I have so 
much respect and affection as for average minis- 
ters of the gospel. They are not sustained in 
their labors by popular applause and newspaper 



why now? 373 

puffs, but by love for Christ and the souls of 
men. They are patient, persevering, self-deny- 
ing. They endure as seeing him who is invisi- 
ble. They lay foundations for others to build 
upon. They do not estimate themselves at so 
many thousands a year, but are willing to work 
even though poorly paid and lightly esteemed of 
men, knowing that their reward is in heaven. It 
is these average ministers who have extended the 
Church over this broad continent, and established 
missionary stations around the world. Let us 
honor them as God does. Let us not provoke 
him to anger by treating them with indifference 
or contempt. And if we ourselves are but aver- 
age ministers in the estimation of the world, let 
us rejoice that God has counted us worthy. For 
to be his ambassador in some frontier settlement 
is nobler than to wear the crown of an Emperor. 



WHY NOW? 

As death itself is the great mystery, everything 
connected with it is mysterious. It comes often 
when least expected. It comes not to the aged 



374 c. e. b. 

who are longing for it — not to the sick who are 
weary of life, but to the young in the day-dawn 
of their hopes, to the strong in the midst of their 
activities and plans: to the useful whom we feel 
that we can not spare. It comes to the husband 
and father when wife and children are far away. 
It comes to the young mother when the babe 
that God has given her seems most to need her 
care. It comes to the daughter who is nursing 
an aged parent, and leaves that parent to linger 
in weariness and pain, ministered to by strangers. 
It passes by the pauper in the poor-house, and 
strikes the rich man in his luxurious home. 

We read a touching letter from a venerable 
minister, in one of our Eastern exchanges last 
week. He had been bed-ridden for months, and 
was listening day and night for his summons to 
the land of rest. He had apparently finished his 
work on earth, and longed to depart and be with 
Christ. The death angel came. He entered the 
house of that aged and suffering one, but passing 
by his chamber he went into that of a grand- 
child, brimful of buoyant life. The child was 
taken and he was left. Did the angel make a 
mistake ? Did he go to the right house, but to 



why mow? 375 

the wrong chamber? No; he went just where he 
was told to go. It was God's will that the grand- 
child should die, and the grandsire remain to 
suffer and to ripen a little longer. 

When we stand by the coffin of a friend and 
ask, Why now ? is there any answer to our ques- 
tion? Yes, there is — nay, two answers come to 
the heart's troubled questioning— two answers 
from the page of inspiration. The first is: "He 
doeth all things well." The second is: "What 
I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know 
hereafter." God is wise, God is good, and God 
will tell us all about it at the right time. Is not 
this enough? Can we not trust and wait? 

A general had placed a division of his army in 
a certain place, with directions to fortify and hold 
it. They worked in the trenches all day. At 
midnight, when the deep sleep of weariness had 
fallen upon them, an aid-de-camp came, saying: 
"Up, abandon your tents and your baggage, and 
make a forced march under my directions!" He 
brought unwritten orders from the Commander- 
in-chief. The officer in charge of the fort was as- 
tonished. "What can it mean? I was told to 
fortify and hold this place yesterday — to-night I 



376 c. e, b. 

am told to abandon it, and go I know not where. 
But the General never makes any mistakes. He 
takes the responsibility, and when the campaign 
is over he will tell me all about it." 

So, promptly and cheerfully, at midnight, that 
tired army leaves its camp-fires, and goes out into 
the darkness after its guide. It goes wondering 
and yet trusting. It has confidence in the Gen- 
eral who has so often led it to victory. And 
shall not the Christian soldier confide in the Cap- 
tain of his salvation? That Captain has placed a 
minister over one of his churches. He is faithful, 
acceptable and useful. But suddenly he is 
stricken down, in early manhood or in middle 
life. He thought he heard his leader's voice, 
saying: "Hold this fort for me," and he was try- 
ing to obey. But now the voice says: "Leave 
the work you love, and come up hither." Is 
there a mistake? It seems so to us. But he who 
knoweth all things, and doeth all things well, sent 
that summons, and it must be right. His cam- 
paign against the powers of darkness extends 
over the ages, and perhaps over many worlds be- 
sides this. He may need a soldier in another 
sphere more than he is needed in this. He may 



COSTLY CARE. 377 

take him into the spirit world to fill a more im- 
portant place, and may take him in the midst of 
his years, because he is already all fitted for that 
higher service, and there is immediate need of 
him in it. Or he may take him away from evil 
to come, or he may take him away because his 
death will reach and bless those whom he could 
not influence by his life. The biographies of 
Henry Martyn and Harriet Newell may have 
done more for Foreign Missions than they could- 
have accomplished if they had lived to fourscore 
years. 

Does any reader, looking at a recent grave and 
a vacant place in church or home, ask, Why now? 
We reply, "It is God's chosen time — hence, it is 
the right time and the best time, and we shall see 
it so when we reach the land where no tears shall 
ever dim our eyes. " 



COSTLY CARE. 

I encountered to-day one of Wayland Hoyt's 
pithy sentences: "It costs something to take care 
of a soul.'' Yes, it does. Consider the soul a 



37§ c. E. B. 

jewel — the most precious thing in our possession. 
What do they who have diamonds do with them? 
Let them lie about on their tables or their bu- 
reaus? No, they keep them under lock and key 
— in fire and burglar proof safes. I read in a 
paper, recently, of a lady in Paris who was going 
to London next morning. She had to take her 
diamonds out of the bank where they were de- 
deposited before three o'clock in the afternoon, 
and she sat up all night to guard them. Such 
was the cost to her of having those precious 
stones. And should not he who realizes the 
worth of the soul be ever watchful, knowing that 
subtle and mighty foes are ever around him? But 
the soul — the spiritual life in man — is like an 
exotic in this world of selfishness and sin. The 
air is bleak for it. Drouth and frost imperil its 
existence. It must be carefully guarded or it will 
perish. And yet, again, this new life is like a 
babe. It is feeble. It must be nourished. We 
must »eek for it "the sincere milk of the word." 
We must cradle it in the arms of a lowly and 
loving faith. In every view that we take of the 
soul we see that it requires care and toil — that it 
is not a possession we can neglect; that if we 



COSTLY CARE. 379 

would keep it safely, and have it grow strong, we 
must give to it much time and thought, and 
earnest, prayerful culture. And is not a soul 
made in God's image, and that may live and 
shine in God's presence forever and ever, worth 
caring for? I saw a picture to-day of many a 
human soul. It was a tree that used to bear fruit 
in abundance, and of the choicest kind. But the 
owner had become interested in other things. 
He thought that the tree could take care of itself. 
He did not prune it. He did not mellow and 
enrich the ground about it. Hence, the tree has 
become barren and sickly; even its leaves are 
blighted. It droops and seems about to die. 
Poor, neglected tree, that so nobly repaid the 
culture of the past; that so mournfully testifies to 
the neglect of the present, how many souls are 
like thee ! Their owners are too busy to care for 
them. Nothing will pay so well in present hap- 
piness, to say nothing of the future's grand har- 
vest, as fidelity in the care and culture of our 
spiritual life. 



380 C. E. B. 

WITH ALL THY HEART. 

The Psalmist says: "Thy commandment is ex- 
ceedingly broad. " (Psalms cxix. 96.) And many 
who read Christ's summary of the first table of 
the law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, " are tempted to regard it as 
too broad for any finite being to obey. But let 
us look into the matter. What is required? 
Perfect obedience? faultless perfection in char- 
acter and life? No; only love. He said not, 
"Thou shalt serve the Lord," but "Thou shalt 
love him." Now, nothing is easier than to love 
those who are lovely and loving. The child loves 
instinctively. Its affections flow out to those who 
are kind to it as water from a full fountain. But 
God is infinitely lovely himself, and he has been 
wondrously good to us. We ought then to love 
him spontaneously ; without effort. To refuse to 
love him is unnatural, and to do so warmly, 
heartily, should be as easy for us as to breathe. 

But we can not, with these fallen natures, love 
as we should. We can not love as angels do. 
Very well. This is not required of us. Christ 
did not say, "Love with a perfect heart, with an 



WITH ALL THY HEART. 38 I 

angel's heart," but "with thy heart." Yes, that 
heart of thine, just as it is, God seeks to enter, 
and to abide in it. He does not expect you to 
prepare a marble palace for him, or a chamber of 
ivory inlaid with gold. He only asks you to 
open the door of that poor hovel, your fallen 
heart, and let him take possession of it. Won- 
derful that the Holy One should want such hearts 
as ours. But so it is, and to each reader comes 
this petition from our heavenly Father, "My son, 
give me thine heart!" 

But admitting that it is very easy to love, and 
that it should not be hard to give the heart as it 
is to God, yet many pause at the word "all." 
How can I love God with all my heart? I have 
human friends. Must I expel them from my 
affections that I <{nay fix them wholly upon God ? 
No ; for in this very summary of the law our 
Savior recognized two other objects to be loved 
besides God, viz.: ourselves and our neighbors. 
Hence, though he is to fill the heart, he will fill 
it as sunshine fills the house — not excluding other 
things, but illuminating them. He will fill it as 
w r ater fills the sea, not destroying other things, 
but surrounding, sustaining and nourishing them. 



382 C. E. B. 

We are to love ourselves as created in God's 
image, as his children. We are to love others as 
his creatures, love them for his sake. 

In our human homes, love for father and 
mother, however great it be, does not prevent or 
diminish our love for brothers and sisters. Nay, 
filial affection stimulates fraternal affection. So 
true love for God, though it fill the whole heart, 
will only make us love others better. 

Then, though the commandment is broad it is 
not unreasonable. We can obey it. God only 
requires us to love him with such hearts as we 
have, and to love him supremely; that we love 
him in and through all other proper objects of 
affection, yet above them all. The command- 
ment is, that we give him his true place as our 
God and Father; that we enthrone him in our 
spirits, as he is enthroned in the universe ; that 
we let him pervade and fill and brighten our 
souls, as he does all his other works. Can we 
not all. do this? Should we not all do it, and do 
it without delay. 



ADOPTION. 383 

ADOPTION. 

Nearly twenty years ago an emigrant family 
reached Sacramento, sick and destitute. A mer- 
chant in that city took them into his family, the 
man and woman working for him as they were 
able. They had an only child, a boy, three or 
four years old. The mother died. The father 
married again. The boy did not like his step- 
mother, and as the merchant and his wife had no 
children, they adopted him. The merchant be- 
came one of California's railroad kings. He grew 
rich rapidly. He died a few days ago leaving an 
estate worth sixteen millions of dollars, and no 
will. At first the lawyers said that his adopted 
son would inherit half of the estate. But it seems 
that though he had always been considered and 
treated as a son, he had not been so formally 
adopted as to make him an heir, and the latest 
statement of those cognizant of the law and the 
fact is, that he gets nothing. Of the sixteen mil- 
lions the widow receives three-quarters, and the 
remainder goes to the brothers of the deceased. 

When I first read of this young man's inherit- 
ing eight millions as an adopted son, I thought 



384 C. E. B. 

of the Christian's adoption. We, like him, do 
nothing to earn or merit the great inheritance. 
We owe it all to the electing love of God. 
When we were poor and destitute, nay, when we 
were guilty and vile, he chose us; he called us 
sons; he made us heirs, joint-heirs with Christ, 
his eternal Son. He treats us as children, be- 
stowing upon us many blessings, chastening us 
when we need it, trying to prepare us for the 
kingdom that we are to inherit; for he who 
adopts us is a great King, and all his heirs shall 
reign with him forever and ever. 

But when I read of the failure of this young 
man's brilliant prospects, I rejoiced in the fact 
that there could be no such failure in the case of 
the Christian. God will not neglect anything that 
is necessary to perfect our title, or to put us into 
full possession of our inheritance. There will be 
no counter-claim ; no litigation ; no delay. Christ 
himself will stand before the assembled universe, 
and say to each believer: "Come, thou blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you before the foundation of the world." How 
grand, how blessed this adoption ! 



A FINISHED LIFE. 385 

A FINISHED LIFE. 

Paul said just before his martyrdom, "I have 
finished my course." The same apostle declared 
of John the Baptist that he "fulfilled his course." 
Our Savior in his prayer to the Father said: "I 
have finished the work which thou gavest me to 
do." Yet none of those were finished lives, if 
measured by human standards. Paul's work 
seems widely scattered and fragmentary. He 
founded churches here and there ; he wrote let- 
ters to those churches; and then, while in the 
vigor of his powers, he was put to death. John 
the Baptist started a great religious movement, 
but, after blazing like a meteor for a year or two, 
he was arrested and beheaded. Even Jesus of 
Nazareth did not seem to have accomplished any- 
thing worthy of his powers and his claims. His 
disciples thought that he would at least restore 
the kingdom to Israel. But, after organizing a 
church of eleven members in a guest chamber, he 
was crucified. 

Now, if a man begins some great work and is 
arrested when it is half done, he feels that he is 
prematurely cut off, and that he has not fulfilled 
2 5 



386 C. E. B, 

his course. When an architect lays a foundation 
he wants to live until he can put on the top-stone 
with shouting. If he has to leave the finishing of 
his plan to another, he regards his life as unfin- 
ished. Yet this may be a mistake. The life 
may be complete though the building is not 
Some men are raised up to lay foundations, and 
others to build on those foundations. The for- 
mer are called wise master-builders. They are not 
failures, though their work is left unfinished. If 
the part of it specially entrusted to them is faith- 
fully performed, they will receive the plaudit, 
"Well done," though another should "build 
thereon.' ' 

It is important for us to understand the distinc- 
tion between a finished life plan and a finished 
life. We believe in life plans. Every man ought 
to set before himself a definite aim. He ought 
to have a mark toward which he will press. 
Considering carefully his powers and his oppor- 
tunities, let him say, "I will, if spared long 
enough, build up a church here; establish a 
newspaper; endow a seminary; prepare a book 
or a series of books; make a model farm," etc. 
This plan, if it respects the Providential indica- 



A FINISHED LIFE. 387 

tions, may be both reasonable and right. It 
gives unity of purpose and consecration of ener- 
gy. But suppose the man dies early, before any 
of the seeds he planted have had time to mature ; 
or suppose obstacles arise to baffle him in his 
efforts, and he finds himself growing old, while 
yet far from his mark. In this case shall he say, 
with the missionary Egede when he left Green- 
land, "I have labored in vain. I have spent my 
strength for naught and in vain?' ' No! no! For 
he may have done all that he could, and all that 
God expected him to do, and the value of the 
work in itself may be less important than its in- 
fluence on the worker. 

Paul was eminently useful in his days, and his 
example and writings have perpetuated that use- 
fulness through the ages. But the crowning 
work of his life was not the churches he founded 
or the letters he wrote. It was himself. What 
he became by the grace of God was even more 
important than what he did. And it is so with 
all of us. We are perfecting the workman while 
we are doing the work ; and when the workman 
is prepared for a higher sphere, he need not 
grieve if he is taken away from an unfinished 



388 c. e. b. 

work. It was his only in a subordinate sense. 
The Great Master-builder used him to dress and 
lay a few stones in the wall of the temple. But 
there are many other laborers, and the plan of 
the edifice will require ages for its completion. 
God did not use Paul because he needed him es- 
pecially. He could have raised up others to 
organize those missionary churches, and to write 
those wonderful letters. But Paul needed the 
work, and in doing it he finished his course; i. e. } 
his training for the spirit world. 

It ought to be a source of comfort to the 
Christian that he does not have to finish anything 
here but his own course, the course which God 
has prepared for him. He is responsible for 
faithful work, and not for final results. And the 
disappointment of his plans, or the early death 
that seems to us to mar the completeness of the 
life, may be the means by which God rounds and 
polishes it. Moses thought that he should have 
died in the Promised Land. But who does not 
see how much better it was that his life should 
end on Pisgah, and as a life of faith, and with a 
miraculous vision of Canaan? And we may die 
just when we seem near the goal which we have 



TOO MUCH SUNSHINE. 389 

struggled toward for years! Is it sad? Is it 
mysterious? No; we have secured the discipline 
of the struggle, and the unseen reward is far 
better than that on which our bodily eyes were 
fixed. No matter about the church, the family 
and the world. God still lives. God will take 
care of them. Enough for us that we have been 
enabled to finish on earth a life that will fit us for 
glory. 



TOO MUCH SUNSHINE. 

Writing about gardens and about making 
garden, in December, leads me to notice a re- 
markable fact in our present experience on this 
coast. We are having weather as nearly perfect 
as can be imagined. For two months past our 
skies have been almost cloudless; the air has 
been just warm enough and just cool enough. 
There have been light breezes, but no high winds. 
We have had very little frost and scarcely any 
fog. Occasionally a mist has covered the valley 
for a few hours in the morning, but it has not 
been strong enough to climb our hills. It is 



390 c. E. B. 

pleasant to sit outdoors in the sunshine, and it is 
not too cool even in the shade. We have no fire 
during the day except for cooking, and make a 
little in the evening more for the cheerfulness of 
the blaze than because we need the warmth. On 
irrigated ground flowers are in full bloom. Take 
one of your brightest, balmiest days of May, or 
in September, and you have a specimen of all our 
days since the middle of October. You would 
think that dwellers in a climate so nearly celestial 
must be as happy as angels. But we are not 
happy. We are anxious and troubled. We long 
for high winds, and for storm clouds. If this 
pleasant weather continues much longer we shall 
have another dry season, and that would mean 
famine, indeed. Hence we weary of the monoto- 
nous calm and sunshine. We look to the hills 
and to the sea, hoping for a vision of clouds that 
shall herald the coming of rain. 

There are such seasons in the experience of the 
Church and of individual Christians — seasons of 
calm and sunshine — seasons of harmony and 
brotherly love. We enjoy them and bless God 
for them, yet they are not the most profitable sea- 
sons for us, or for the cause of Christ. They are 



TOO MUCH SUNSHINE. 39 1 

not the seasons of growth. In this world of sin 
and sorrow the good seed germinates best and 
the trees of righteousness flourish best when the 
clouds darken and the winds blow. We need 
sunshine, indeed. Nothing will mature or ripen 
without it. But too much sunshine is worse than 
too much rain. In the natural world, God gives 
usually a due proportion of clear and cloudy, of 
still and stormy days. And he will administer as 
wisely the affairs of his spiritual kingdom. We 
need that faith in him which welcomes the season 
of trial and conflict, as cheerfully as the season of 
peace and love. The former is the seed-sowing 
season, the season of growth. The latter is the 
season when the fruits ripen and are gathered. 
We can not control the weather, though we 

can influence it, or rather him who sends it, by 
prayer. But we can, to some extent, control the 
climate of the Church. When we feel that all is 
well with it, and begin to rejoice in it, as our 
terrestrial paradise, may it not be that we are too 
comfortable, too happy, for pilgrims and stran- 
gers ; for soldiers in a hostile land ; for disciples of 
the Man of sorrows ? Some one has truly said that 
all great souls were sorrowful souls. The men 



39 2 c. e. b. 

who have done the most for the world have not 
enjoyed it the most. They have not sought ease 
and comfort, even in spiritual things. They have 
sought only to work for God and man, and to 
fight against all their foes. If the Church of to- 
day were more aggressive in its spirit ; if it went 
forth in battle array against all popular errors and 
evils, it would soon have stormy times. It would 
gather about it clouds of obliquy and scorn. It 
would wake up opposition that would mutter as 
the thunder, and flash like the lightning. But 
out of the storm would come such heavenly rain, 
and such growth in grace, as can not be enjoyed 
in these days of amiable conformity to the world. 
The Church can make its weather, I repeat. Oh, 
may she seek that which shall be profitable rather 
than that which is pleasant. 



THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. 

The event of the week in our country home is 
a wedding. We did not have a hasty collation 
just before train time, and then hurry the wedded 
pair away, thus making the occasion one of mere 



THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. 393 

"fuss and feathers." We had an evening wed- 
ding, an old-fashioned marriage supper after it, 
and plenty of time to discuss the viands and other 
things. We all liked it, and declared that the 
next time we were married it should be in this 
good old way. A great objection I have to the 
modern fashionable wedding is that it mars one 
of the most delightful figures in the Bible — that 
of the marriage supper of the Lamb. There is 
nothing in this style of crowding around a table 
and snatching a few delicacies from it, at the risk 
of having your best clothes spoiled, to remind us, 
unless it be by contrast, of that quiet, holy, lov- 
ing feast where we shall sit down with Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob, those patriarchs whose lives 
were so calm and restful compared with ours. 

I feel like protesting, in the name of the Bible, 
against the prevalent style of marrying and giving 
in marriage. There is too much hurry and 
worry, and not enough solemnity; too much 
glitter and display; too much selfishness and 
pride; too much vanity and folly. No wonder 
there are so many legal divorces and illegal sepa- 
rations, when the most sacred and important of 
all earthly contracts is entered into on such vi- 



394 c. e. b. 

cious principles. But I began to write about one 
marriage supper as suggestive of, and yet inferior 
to, the great supper of the future. 

I. This feast celebrates the end of a long court- 
ship, with its many fluctuations of feeling, its 
months of uncertainty, anxiety, hope and fear. 
The ships that have been tossed by winds and 
waves, now near and now apart ; now exchanging 
signals and now coming within speaking distance, 
are anchored together at last. They feel to-night 
that their storms are over — that the clouds are 
swept from their sky ; that they have peace ; that 
their spirits rest in each other's pledged fidelity 
and love. So will the believer feel when he takes 
his place at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
"Farewell, conflicting hopes and fears." No 
more doubts; no more temptations; no more 
struggles and flutterings of faith amid darkness 
and storm ; no more dread of shipwreck. Safe 
at last, safe forever. Heaven is not an anticipa- 
tion, but a fruition. Christ is not seen through a 
glass darkly, but face to face. We are not pil- 
grims any longer, climbing up the steep and nar- 
row way, but are welcomed into the palace of our 
Lord and seated in his banquet hall, where the 



THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. 395 

banner over us is love. Oh, this feeling of cer- 
tainty, the certainty of salvation and eternal life, 
will be the first element of rapture in the hearts 
of those who are called to the marriage supper of 
the Lamb. 

2. But our feast celebrates a beginning as well 
as an end — the beginning of a home life and 
home joys that seem wondrous bright in the eyes 
of the bridegroom and bride. What plans, what 
hopes, what expectations engross their thoughts ! 
How they love to talk about the future which 
they are to spend together ! How attractively it 
opens to them, like some shaded avenue bordered 
with flowers through which they are to walk hand 
in hand, while rills murmur beside them and 
birds sing above them. And that coming mar- 
riage supper will be a beginning, also — the first 
glad hour of an endless day, of a day that shall 
grow brighter and brighter forever. It will be 
glorious to sit down with Christ as our bride- 
groom in heaven's banquet hall, with myriads of 
sinless angels and the saints of all ages. But the 
law of life there is "from glory unto glory." As 
we see more of Christ we will love him more, and 
seeing and loving, we will be changed more and 



396 C. E. B. 

more into his image ; become lovelier in his sight 
and consciously worthier of his love. 

3. We may add that every marriage feast cele- 
brates not only one union, but many. The 
bridegroom has a wife, and the bride a husband. 
But her parents have another son, and his an- 
other daughter. Their brothers and sisters have 
each a new brother or sister added to the circle of 
loved ones. And so in the wider range of kin- 
dred and friendship, the marriage brings many 
together who were strangers, or indifferent to 
each other before. And the great marriage sup- 
per will not only celebrate each believer's com- 
plete union with Christ, but with all the holy and 
happy spirits of the redeemed in heaven. 

Alas! how few find on earth the happiness 
they dream of. It is ever before them like a 
dancing will-o'-the-wisp, but never grasped. And 
even if this marriage proves to be what the world 
calls a happy one, it is for a few years only. 
Soon old age will come, and death close the scene. 

But there will be no shadows over the marriage 
supper of the Lamb. The bridegroom can never 
die or change. The bride will see more of his 
loveliness and enjoy more of his love as ages roll 



HOW MUCH GOLD ? 397 

on ; and amid every new scene of glory and sense 
of blessedness will come the thrilling hope of a 
brighter glory and a more perfect blessedness. 
No longing for it, no sense of emptiness or want ; 
a perfect fullness of joy, with the knowledge that 
we shall grow ever in our capacities, yet never 
outgrow God's ability and will to make us per- 
fectly happy. Such will be the superiority of 
this future marriage supper to the best that we 
enjoy on earth. Let those who are called to it 
give all diligence to make their calling and elec- 
tion sure. 



HOW MUCH GOLD? 

I passed one of the Assay Offices in San Fran- 
cisco the other day. A man brought in speci- 
mens of ore. They looked to my unpracticed 
eye very much like pieces of ordinary rock. But 
the owner believed that they were valuable, and 
he wanted to have them tested. The assayer 
took them. He did not stop to admire their 
beauty as specimens. He weighed them; then 
broke them up and pulverized them ; then put 



39 s c. E. B. 

the fragments — the dust and sand to which he 
had reduced them — into a crucible, and applied 
an intense heat. It was a severe operation, and 
resulted in destroying every component part of 
those specimens but the gold. That was left in a 
pure and shining lump — "a button," I think they 
called it. The assayer took that "button" from 
the crucible; compared the weight with that of 
the ore; figured a moment, and said: "Your 
specimens show $100 worth of gold to the ton." 
That was what the man wanted to know. He 
did not complain that his beautiful specimens 
were spoiled. He rejoiced greatly in that little 
"button" of gold. 

Another thing that I noticed: the result as an- 
nounced and rejoiced in did not depend upon the 
size of the specimen of ore, or of the "button" of 
gold, but on the relation of the one to the other 
— the proportion of the gold to the ore. The 
ov/ner said : ' 'That half ounce, from ten pounds 
of quartz, shows my mine to be worth so many 
millions of dollars. Its intrinsic value will not 
pay the assayer's fees ; but its value, as a test or 
proof of the richness of the mine, is almost incal- 
culable." 






HOW MUCH GOLD ? 399 

God says "That the trial of your faith, being 
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, 
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto 
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of 
Jesus Christ." In times of prosperity we may 
think that we have this celestial gold, called faith. 
We love God, or imagine that we do. We con- 
fide in Christ as our Savior, or hope that we do. 
We cherish the influences of the Holy Spirit, or, 
at least, we try to. Yet we are often in doubt. 
We can not feel sure that w r e are "rich toward 
God." We pray for assurance of faith. And 
how does he give it? By a message from heaven? 
By kindling to a glow the love in our hearts? 
No ; but by beating us in the mortar and throwing 
us into the fire. When our spirits are bruised 
and broken and scorched; when riches take 
wings; when friends grow cold or die; when our 
cherished hopes are blasted ; when we are tempt- 
ed, in our sadness and sorrow of heart, to cry, 
"all these things are against me" — then we turn 
to God as our only hope. Then we trust him 
only ; trust him fully, and find that his grace is 
sufficient for us. This test of our faith reveals its 
purity and preciousness. It is hard; the flesh 



400 C. E. B. 

shrinks; the sensibilities are deeply stirred; the 
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; yet 
as the Great Arm of Infinite Love encircles and 
sustains us — 

A joy springs up amid distress, 
A fountain in the wilderness ! 

' 'Found unto praise and honor and glory." How 
glorious the reward of a true and tested faith! 
How grateful, then, we should be for the trial of 
it ; for the afflictions which bring it out from the 
dross, and reveal it to us as more precious than 
gold. 

Here, as in the case of the metal in the cruci- 
ble, it is not the amount, but the quality, that is 
regarded. Is it pure gold? Is it true faith? If 
that faith be but as a grain of mustard-seed, it is 
able to remove mountains. When God, then, 
develops within us, by the trials of life, even a 
little living faith, we know that he is ours and 
that we are his. We are as sure of spiritual 
wealth, of being millionaires in heaven, as if we 
already walked its golden streets. 

THE END. 









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